Remembrance
by thesmileofawinchester
Summary: The Tardis has taken The Doctor and Amy to one of the more dangerous points in Earth History, but why? Mystery surrounds someone from the Doctor's past. Set after Episode 11 Of Season 5! Spoilers, and I own none of the characters. Yet...
1. Chapter 1

She fell into the mud with a splatter, brown marks up her arms, legs and face. Shuffling back in surprise, she found herself falling back into equally disgusting mud.

"Oh my god, Oh my god" She murmured, repeating those three words over and over, astonishment and fear taking over her body, her whole self shaking and shivering at the situation. She squeezed her eyes tight, and quickly opened them, looking around. She was in some sort of trench, mud and makeshift wooden pavement under and around her.

What was worse was the bodies, at least ten in plain sight, probably more round the bends of the trench. Some were marked with bullets, others with limbs blown off, and some almost unrecognisable as people, they were destroyed so brutally.

She suddenly noticed a pair of legs beside her, someone was standing. The person was wearing a dark brown suit, darker at the feet, which were covered in mud, much like herself. That was all she saw of him though, as almost as soon as she had noticed him she heard gunfire, thick, heavy, rattling gunfire, and the man fell down, slumped back against the mud, his face destroyed by machine gun bullet wounds.

She heaved, her stomach rolling, her whole body shaking, and grabbed the man's hand. She stopped speaking now, choosing instead to begin crying, in shock, fear, confusion and a billion other reasons.

With so much going on, she failed to notice the wheezing sound of a blue box materialising a few feet away from her.

* * *

"Amy, did you press something?" The Doctor yelled out, as the TARDIS began its journey into the time vortex, seemingly its own decision, and catching both the Doctor and Amy off guard.

"I wasn't even near anything" She yelled back, clinging onto the rail after being flung off the sofa.

"Oh, she's excited" The Doctor muttered. He pulled several obscure levers, while Amy tried to remember what each action controlled. "What are you so excited about, ey?"

Amy rolled her eyes as he spoke to the TARDIS. She knew they had some sort of psychic connection, she had even felt it touching the corners of her mind on occasion, but the relationship between the Doctor and his ship was just a little silly, in her opinion.

"So is she taking off on her own, then?" She asked, standing at the console with him, slightly more stable now that he had taken a bit of control.

"Yeah, she does every once in a while, if something catches her attention." He told her, remembering the time she had done so, leading to the creation of his daughter. He quickly tucked the memory away. There were too many sad memories from that particular adventure.

"Didn't you leave the brakes on?" She asked. "I swear I saw you put the brakes on."

"Yes, yes I did. That's why she made it so bumpy for us there." He said, and scooted over to where Amy was standing. Her breath caught in her throat momentarily as he got close to her, until he was inches away from her. He paused.

"Excuse me, Amy." He said politely, and she stepped back obediently. She scolded herself mentally for misreading the tiniest of gestures, again. He just wanted to get to that blue sliding lever.

"I could've done that for you." She suggested as he held it in place, anxious to impress.

"Yes you could have..." He pondered. He looked at her apologetically. "Sorry." He knew how much she wanted to be able to fly the TARDIS, ever since she saw River engineering it.

She almost fell over as a final jolt went through the ship, and then stopped, steady.

"We've landed." He said, not without some excitement. He looked at her, eyes sparkling. "Shall we see where we are?"

They both moved round the console to the screen, and looked down at it.

The first thing she saw was mud. Mud, and grime, and ground. Next she saw the trenches dug into ground, and soon after she saw the corpses littered around.

"Doctor..." She began. "It kind of looks like..." she trailed off, not exactly wanting to finish her sentence. The Doctor pushed some buttons, and a small box appeared at the corner of the screen in Gallifreyan text.

"1943." He read aloud "Amy, we are slap bang in the middle of World War Two, the trenches to be exact." His voice was serious, no hint of his excitement or joviality that there was a moment before.

"Why did the TARDIS bring us here?" She asked him, looking up at his stern face, seeing the worry creasing his eyes.

He didn't answer for a minute, staring at the screen as he shimmied the camera lens to see all around. He stopped its rotation as he spotted her, the blonde woman kneeling in the trenches, muddy, like everything else. His two hearts thudded almost painfully at the sight of her.

"I think I know..."

* * *

Thank you for reading! This is my first ever fan fiction, and the first time in a LONG time I have submitted any work online, so any critique is welcome!


	2. Chapter 2

"Doctor?" Amy questioned, concerned by the look on his face. She looked down at the monitor, immediately seeing what was so fascinating to him, the Blonde hair a stark contrast to the brown mud. "Who is that?"

The Doctor just stared into the monitor, his expression unchanged, as if he hadn't heard Amy at all. He stayed in silence for a solid ten seconds, and Amy became fearful of his reaction. It took a lot to make the Doctor this quiet.

"Doctor?" She tried again, and gently nudged him with a fist. "Doctor, who is she?" His silence continued, and Amy felt herself growing panicky. She was about to speak again when a tapping started, a quick paced tapping high up in the walls of the TARDIS. The Doctor finally looked up, his expression the same.

"They're firing at us." He stated, his voice quiet, pondering.

"How can they be? What about the perception filter?" Amy asked.

"It's a war, Amy. Everyone is trigger happy and on high alert. They're looking for everything, which means they can see us." He explained, his voice louder, solemn. Suddenly, his demeanour changed, clapping his hands, startling Amy. "I'll be right back!" He ran to the door, almost skipping in excitement.

"Well, I'm coming with you." Amy said, walking after him. He span round, and pointed a finger in her face, almost touching her nose.

"No." He told her. "You are not coming with me."

"I always come with you, Doctor, you know better than to tell me that." She laughed, and tried to walk past him. He stuck out his hand, blocking her.

"Amy, just this once, you are going to do as I say." He was serious again now, his voice low, and scaring Amy more than the bullets outside did. "Out there is one of the darkest times of Earth history. People shoot to kill and don't think twice about it. Soldiers have got guns pointed right at us, and if you stand tall enough, they blow your head off."

"Doctor, wherever we go is dangerous." She began, but he cut her off.

"Amy, we do not have time for this. Stay here, watch the monitors for anyone coming."

He was deadly serious, she could tell. She had only seen him like this once before, back in Venice, the one time she had done what he told her.

"Okay." She muttered, and turned back to the console. The Doctor watched her go, making sure that she wasn't planning on following him outside, then with only a slight hesitation, opened the doors of the TARDIS.

She had landed so that the doors faced along the trench, rather than out across the battlefield, meaning that the inside of the TARDIS was sheltered from bullets. The Doctor ducked down, making sure his head was lower than the top of the trench, and began to walk.

The bullets were coming thicker and faster since he had opened the doors, and twice he heard them come a little too close for comfort. With a slight mutter, he crouched down into the mud, a safer position, but covering his hands and trousers with what he knew was more than just mud.

He crept closer to the girl, his movements too quiet to be heard over the gunfire. But he could hear her crying. He could see her panicking, knelt next to a dead body, with bullets flying constantly overhead. He called her name, softly at first, his throat becoming re-accustomed to the sound. It had been so long since he had even mentioned her, just the once in this body, a time when Amy had asked about past companions.

He called her name louder, and she finally turned, shaking, terrified. He crawled up to her, close enough to touch. He could see thick mascara trails down her face, and smears of drying mud on her skin and clumped in her hair.

He hesitated, only for a split second, before he took her hand, covering it with his own.

"What are you doing here, Rose?"

* * *

I love you guys. I got ELEVEN emails overnight, telling me that people liked it enough to review it, favorite it and track it! I don't know if that's low or high, but it feels really high to me!


	3. Chapter 3

"What are you doing here, Rose?" Amy saw him yell above the gunfire. Watching around outside the TARDIS on other parts of the screen in her peripheral vision, she focused on the Doctor, and Rose.

Could it really be THE Rose? His old companion? He had only spoke of her once, when Amy had quizzed him on other people he had travelled with. He said he had travelled with about 30 people, and when she had asked for names, he told her few, mentioning a Rose. She could see the Doctor's feelings towards Rose when he said her name, because out of all of the things that he could do fabulously, hiding emotions was not one of them. He had looked down, said her name, and cleared his throat. After a second of awkward silence, he quickly changed the subject to the next point in time and space they would be visiting.

She wondered if The Doctor would think of herself like that, if she were to ever leave him.

So now this Rose was back. She was back, and Amy could see a million different emotions in the Doctor as he stared into Rose's eyes, even through the screen, through the way he was crouching, the way he held her hand.

She could also see that Rose was not returning any of these emotions...

* * *

"What are you doing here, Rose?" The Doctor yelled above the gunfire, holding onto her hand. It was as much as he allowed himself to do; it hurt too much to let her go time and time again. However, his logic didn't stop his hand twitching to caress her muddy face, or lean in to hug her.

Rose was saying nothing, just sobbing. She wasn't looking anywhere in particular, her eyes barely focusing on The Doctor, before they were flashing away, looking everywhere, not seeing anything. She was shaking violently, her whole body shuddering.

Only now did The Doctor allow himself to take a hand away from hers, and put it onto her face, focusing hers onto his. He stared into her eyes, still unfocused, still not stopping at any time. He allowed himself a minute to just look into her eyes, but when he heard an explosion, not too far in the distance.

He quickly moved, steadying himself onto his feet, still crouching, and carefully placed his arms under and around her.

"Three, two, one." He counted in her ear. After one he picked her up, cradling her like a parent holds a child. Ignoring the weight, he slowly turned round, and begun his slow walk back to the TARDIS.

It wasn't easy moving like this, having to remain crouched so he wouldn't poke his head above the top of the trench, but he persevered. He forced himself to concentrate on the physical act of putting one foot in front of the other, keeping the weight in his arms steady, and keeping himself low, but he found himself getting distracted.

A part of him that he had locked away a long time ago was joyous. It was the same part of him that he had forced away, three years ago on a beach in the parallel world. Rose would have the human Doctor, and he could no longer dream of holding her again. But here he was, carrying her back into the TARDIS, and the almost hidden scent of her perfume wafting into his nostrils.

Eventually he reached the doors again, Amy ready, holding them open. The Doctor straightened up, readjusting Rose, ignoring Amy offering to share the load. However, Rose had started to rouse herself, and was wriggling out of The Doctor's grip.

He placed her gently down, and she stumbled behind him to get back to the now closed doors. The Doctor grabbed hold of her, carefully, and led her to the sofa, aware of the angry tapping on the walls from bullets outside.

He sat Rose down on the sofa, who was looking wildly around, panicking. The Doctor hadn't noticed her becoming more aware of her surroundings, so focussed was he on the act of walking, but he realised now, when he heard her whispering manically to herself, repeatedly saying "It's bigger, it's bigger", winding her hands into knots, shaking knots of fingers and thumbs, chattering teeth, one shuddering mass.

"Doctor, is she ok?" Called Amy, and when she didn't receive a response, ran over. She knelt in front of Rose, took a wrist and checked her pulse and put a palm to her forehead. She held them there for a few seconds, then looked up at the Doctor.

"She's in shock," She told him, noting his furrowed brow, the way he was chewing on his knuckles. "We need to lay her down somewhere, preferably not glass floor." She told him. He stayed frozen for a second, and Amy briefly wondered if he was in shock too, but he quickly snapped into action, scooping up Rose again.

Amy followed as he carried Rose out of one of the doorway's, into a part of the TARDIS she hadn't seen before, although she knew she had been through that door before. The Doctor seemed unsurprised by the changing layout, and took the first door to the left.

Amy went in too, helping position her on the bed, on her back, knees lifted, and picked up her wrist again, counting Rose's weak pulse. The Doctor hovered cautiously in the doorway, clearly uncomfortable with not having any medical expertise that could help, despite his name. He cleared his throat to speak.

"Does she need anything?" He asked, tapping his fingers on the doorframe, anxious.

"Water to drink, a flannel, and more water." She said, alternating between watching the shaky Rose and the clearly uncomfortable Doctor.

"I'll be right back" he said, almost tripping over himself to get away.

* * *

Two chapters in one day? WELL, a friend of mine decided she has to know what happens, but doesn't want me to just tell her. So I am busying myself doing this; it's more fun that revision.  
Please review! It makes me happy!


	4. Chapter 4

"I'll be right back" the Doctor said, almost tripping over himself to get away.

He felt terrible as he walked down the corridor, a gnawing sensation of worry and guilt down in his stomach. This was _Rose_, his old companion, the woman he... well. And she clearly needed some help, comfort, something had taken her out of her own universe and put her down in this one, clearly shaking her up along the way.

But the Doctor, protector of the universe, the oncoming storm, her friend, couldn't sit with her and hold her hand. No, he ran away, he let Amy take charge, trusting her _supposedly _nonexistent medical knowledge to take care of Rose.

He should probably keep an eye on Amy to see what other things that never existed turn up.

'_I should be happy_!'He thought to himself. Rose is back inside the TARDIS, upset, shaken, but mostly ok. _'Instead, I'm being a coward'_.

Finally reaching the kitchen, he began searching for a glass, bowl, and one of those quick-clean flannels that he picked up in a marketplace, back in Donna's days.

As he reached into one of the cupboards, and felt the soft material already beginning its work on his muddy hands, he decided to start over.

'_Go back in there, hold her hand, and make sure she knows everything will be alright.'_

What could be simpler?

* * *

"I'll be right back!" The Doctor called behind him, disappearing into the hallway, leaving Amy alone with Rose.

"Doctor?" She called after him, but went unheard. She swore quietly under her breath, equally worried about the Doctor and annoyed at him. If this was _the_ Rose, shouldn't he be happy? She knew he had strong emotions for her, perhaps was in love with her, yet he was running away.

Feeling Rose beginning to calm down, she let go of her wrist, and stood up. She had never been in this room before, and as she looked around she realised why.

It was clearly Rose's room. It was far too girly for the Doctor to have decorated himself, and she could women's clothes hanging in the wardrobe, the door slightly ajar. And scattered around she could see photos, lots of them, most of them of Rose with various people. She could see a picture of Rose with an older woman, who looked a bit like her, maybe her mum?

She walked around the room, giving everything a quick glance before moving on to the next. She quickly found herself on the other side of the bed, and saw on the dresser next to it two framed photos. One of her and a man in a leather jacket, with short dark hair and big ears, and another, of her with a brown haired man, in a blue pinstripe suit, with dark brown eyes, and a big smile, looking happily at Rose.

She heard a slight moan behind her, and turned round to see Rose trying to sit up in the bed.

"Shhh, take it easy, ok?" She said, trying to be comforting.

"Where am I?" Rose said quietly, looking around the room.

"In your bedroom, I think." Amy told her, and perched herself on the mattress. They both stayed quiet for a minute, and she found herself getting annoyed at the Doctor taking so long. "What's the last thing you remember?" She prompted.

Rose squinted in concentration. "I remember landing in the mud." She said, still quietly, somewhat husky from crying. "And that man picking me up, and taking me to that box. And then I was inside." She looked up at Amy for confirmation, and she nodded, awkwardly patting her hand.

"What about before that?" She asked. Rose was silent for a minute, eventually looking up at her and shaking her head in confusion.

"I can't remember." She said, her eyes starting to shine with moisture again.

"Ok, how about anything at all, anything before these last ten minutes?" She tried again, trying to not let the anxiety in her gut colour her expression.

"I can't remember anything!" Rose clarified, a tear rolling down her cheek. "There's nothing there!" She tried to get up, but Amy firmly put a hand on her shoulder, keeping her down.

"Lie down. You need to rest." She kept her voice steady, apparently the most in control person in the TARDIS right then.

Finally she heard footsteps approaching, and walked to the doorway, reaching it the same time as the Doctor did.

"How is she?" He asked, looking at Rose.

"She's calmed down a bit, but-" She started, stopping as he pushed past her, sitting down on the bed next to Rose.

"Rose, I'm the Doctor." He told her, carefully watching her as he stared into her eyes. "I've changed a bit since you last saw me, but it is still me."

He only received a blank look in return, and Rose looked up at Amy, then back to the Doctor. "Am I ill?" She asked, trying to sit up again, looking at the Doctor without recognition.

"Doctor," Amy said, drawing his attention back to her. "She doesn't remember anything before being in the mud out there. It's all gone." She told him.

He sat for a second, looking from Amy to Rose, trying to take in the information. Then he slowly lifted himself from the bed, and walked to the doorway. He didn't turn to look at either of them, just looked out.

"I need to move the TARDIS."

* * *

Ok, so I really love you all, I had 180 hits yesterday! Again, as I'm new here, I don't know if this is big or small, but it sure feels big to me :D

Anyone love the new episode last night?


	5. Chapter 5

"I need to move the TARDIS." He said quietly as he left the room. The room was silent behind him, leaving Amy lingering awkwardly by the door. She picked up the glass of water and the flannel, and sat down on Rose's bed.

"Here, drink this." She told her quietly, handing her the glass of water. Rose sipped obediently as Amy began to dab her face with the flannel, cleaning off the mud and cooling her down.

"Am I ill?" Rose asked again, spluttering slightly from the water. She looked up at Amy, concerned.

"I don't know," Said Amy honestly. "I'm not a doctor."

"Oh." Rose sighed. "No offense, but why isn't the Doctor in here then?" She questioned, and Amy smiled.

"He's not a medical Doctor." She explained in thought. "He's more of a scientific one."

"Oh." Rose said again. The mud on her face had dissipated now, thanks to the flannel. Amy placed it down on the bedside table, and stood up.

"I'd better go find the Doctor." She explained. "If you need me, just yell. We'll hear." She trusted the TARDIS to make sure of that, and she turned to leave. Rose stopped her just before she left.

"I upset him, didn't I?" She asked "The Doctor. He was upset I didn't remember him." Her face looked sad too, ashamed of herself, helpless.

"It's not your fault." Amy told her. She stayed there for a second, before deciding she really needed to go after the Doctor. "Just get some rest, ok?"

Rose nodded, and after placing the glass on the night stand next to the flannel, shuffled lower down in the bed. Amy nodded, then left the room.

Thankfully the TARDIS hadn't moved any corridors round again while she had been in there, so she quickly found her way back to the console room. She entered silently, and saw the Doctor standing at the console, staring into the central column.

Amy cleared her throat to let the Doctor know she was there, and he turned to look at her with sad eyes. He moved round the console, pulling levers and pushing buttons, feigning activity. She walked up the steps, continuing till she was right in front of him. She placed a hand over his, stopping him.

"Doctor," she sighed "what are you doing?"

He looked at her with fake confusion, and barely concealed guilt, before looking down at the console.

"I'm moving the TARDIS." He explained. "We can't stay in the trenches, they'll think we're a bomb, or they'll keep shooting, or-"

"Doctor, you already moved us." She tapped the screen, which showed they were in the middle of the countryside, no buildings in sight, the only signs of life being a few cows grazing several fields over. "Very quietly, I might add." The Doctor looked down at her, shrugged, and looked away, fiddling with another lever.

"Doctor," she asked again, "what are you doing?"

He stared down at the console, blinking hard, before looking back to her.

"It's Rose." He whispered, sadness contorting his face into something she hadn't quite seen before. "It's Rose. How can she not remember?"

Amy squeezed his hand. "Amnesia happens all the time. You only have to watch a soap opera to know that." She joked lightly, and he scoffed.

"How did this happen?" He asked himself. "What could have plucked her out of that universe, put her down on this one, in the middle of World War Two, and erased all her memories?" He moved away, slipping his hand from Amy's and began pacing up and down. "A weeping angel could put her back in time, possibly move her into our universe, but wouldn't erase her memory. Avlonians could erase part of her memory, not all... and couldn't displace her. A Rellest, maybe, or a Retni, or a Trickster, or-"

"Or she got hit by something really heavy over the head?" Amy chipped in, interrupting the Doctor, who looked at her in confusion.

"What?" He said scornfully, looking back to her.

"Maybe there's a simple, human explanation for all this." She told him, and he shook his head.

"Don't be silly." He told her, taking his sonic screwdriver, tapping it on his hand repetitively. "A human explanation wouldn't take her from a parallel universe, and put her down in the trenches. Plus, human explanations never happen around me. It's always alien."

"Right." She said. She watched him tapping the screwdriver in her hand, and could see his lips moving as he listed, eyes moving as he read them in his brain. She could see he was going into overdrive with the stress of it. Making an executive decision, she walked up to him, and pushed him backwards into the sofa, where he looked up at her indignantly.

"What was that for?" He asked her, and she sat down next to him.

"Tell me what happened to Rose, Doctor." A command, not a request. He looked at her for a few seconds, weighing up the pro's and con's of sharing with Amy, before eventually reaching a decision.

"I met her in London, 2005, probably about seven or eight years ago. I lose count." He told her, and she nodded understandingly. "We went through a lot together. Travelled for about two and a half years. We fell into a parallel universe, we found her parallel family." He stopped, and sighed, looking back at the console.

"Did you leave her there?" Prompted Amy, and he snapped back looking at her.

"No, of course not. We left Micky there. But he wanted to stay." He defended himself. "Rose and I carried on travelling, but parallel worlds aren't meant to connect, not any more. Something bad happened. She and her Mum ended up stranded in that world with her other Dad." He explained, trying to keep himself calm, but could feel his eyes becoming watery.

"And now she's back?" Amy asked.

"There's more." He said, and stood up. He walked under the glass platform and sat in the swinging chair, and Amy followed, sitting on the floor. "Three years ago the worlds started colliding again, the stars started going out, and Rose found her way through again. After we fixed the universe, a clone of me was made, with all my memories and feelings. A human me, for her."

"Wait," she said, trying to take it all in. "There's another you, wandering around out there?"

"A human me." He explained, "He doesn't look like _me_, he looks like old me."

"Right. Simple." Amy said, gesturing for him to continue.

"He could be with her in a way I couldn't. They could grow old together, be normal. And he needed to be watched. He had the blood of entire species on his hands." He told her, swinging gently in the seat.

She watched him with interest for a minute.

"You loved her." She stated. "Love her?"

He said nothing. Just swung gently on the swing.

"Did you ever...?" She asked, trailing off to save him embarrassment. He looked up quickly.

"No!" He told her, scoffing slightly. "No. I mean, we kissed a couple of times, but she was always possessed by something or other. It never really counted."

"Right." Amy nodded, annoyed at herself for the tinge of jealousy that spread through her. "And now she's forgotten it all."

"Yeah." He said with a slight laugh. He didn't know why he was laughing, why just talking to Amy about it all had made it seem better, just a bit. But it did. "I should try these heart to heart's more often."

"You probably should." She stood up, and he hopped out of the swing, back onto the stable floor. "I get the feeling there's a lot of unresolved issues stored in this brain."

"More than you can imagine." His face was serious again, and Amy pulled him into a hug.

"Gotcha." She whispered into his ear. He chuckled back, and Amy released him.

"So, Doctor." She said. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Rose is in the TARDIS, and you're sitting out here talking to me?" She half scolded him, keeping her voice playful and light. She saw the sadness in his eyes return again, and she stroked his cheek. "Go and talk to her. Deep down, it'll still be her. Somewhere."

He nodded, looking down at his shoes, then back up at Amy, a smile on his face.

"Alright, then."

* * *

Thank you again for all being so lovely!

And a warning... Don't search Matt Smith and Daisy Lowe. And ESPECIALLY do not click on the Daily Telegraph article. It broke my hearts.


	6. Chapter 6

"Alright." Said the Doctor, smiling genuinely at her. God, she loved it when she knew she made him smile. Weird, but it gave her a little buzz. She smiled back encouragingly, and after giving her shoulder a quick squeeze, he walked away from her, climbing up the stairs, and out of the console room.

So she was on her own. She climbed up the steps, and sat herself down on the sofa, staring at the central console column, not unlike the Doctor had been when she had walked in.

Double checking that no one was around, and keeping her ears alert, she swiftly reached into her pocket, and pulled out a red box. Flicking it open, she stared at the gold ring inside, with the single diamond looking out at her, glinting in the yellowed light of the TARDIS.

She hadn't asked the Doctor about it. To do so would be admitting to stealing, or at least taking without asking, which, let's face it, was pretty much the same thing. And it felt personal. This wasn't like taking any old piece of jewellery, this was an _engagement _ring. He was going to give it to someone, or had already...

She wondered if he had given it to Rose, he had clearly loved her a lot, probably still did.

There was that pang of jealousy again, and she plucked the ring out of the box, sliding it on to her own ring finger. She admired it fondly, amazed by how well it fitted.

There was something else there, though... More than the jealousy, and the admiration... There was a tiny bit of unexplainable fear, and something else she couldn't quite place. The more she left it on there, the more anxious she got, and quickly slid it off, placing it back in the box, and snapping it shut.

It sat in her lap for a minute, and she closed her eyes, letting her head tilt back. It wasn't too often that she got to relax, just sit and be comfortable. When it's just the two of them on the TARDIS, the Doctor's attention would focus solely on her.

She suddenly had a flash of an image in her mind, sepia toned and washed out, weird. She opened her eyes again, but another image flashed into her vision, and another, and others, making an obscure movie.

A movie of her, of her crying...but it was her from only half a minute ago. She was putting the ring on her finger, and crying. She was staring at the ring on her finger, and crying. She had tears streaming down her cheeks as she took the ring off and closed it in the box, though her facial expression showed no sign of it, only the water running down her face.

She touched a hand to her face, and found that her cheeks were indeed wet. She scrubbed her face with her sleeve, and opened the box again.

Something was weird about this ring... and she was going to find out what.

She stood up, and walked down the steps, walking towards the entrance to the TARDIS. She remembered there being a box full of random gadgets, the Doctor had briefly pointed out a few when he had first given her a tour round the TARDIS.

"_So in here we have my box of useless gadgets." The Doctor pulled it out from under a shelf with a foot, and bent down to pick out a few. "Most given to me by weird aunts and Godmothers, some I just buy to keep shop keepers happy." He plucked out what looked like a square iPod. "This is a mirror that will show you virtually what you look like with whatever you want on." He explained vaguely._

"_This is a really, really, really long rope, that doesn't break, and will set into whatever form you want." He pointed at a tightly wound rope, fastened together with a hair scrunchie._

"_That will tell you who has come in contact with an object of your choice, right down to the creator." He nudged a box with a sliding drawer with his finger._

"_That is a rather hostile weapon that I bought thinking it was an apple corer." He grimaced, and kicked the box back under._

"_And these are _useless_ gadgets?" Amy asked in disbelief._

"_All of them pointless little things that I will guarantee you will never need." He stated smugly._

"_Are you kidding? James Bond would kill for these!" she told him as they walked back up to the console._

"_James Bond wasn't all that, not nearly as impressive as the stories; bit of a wall flower really, rubbish with the ladies. And men, come to think of it!" He told her, laughing._

"_You met James Bond?" Amy asked, raising her eyebrows. "Isn't he fiction?"_

"_Amy," The Doctor leaned in close to her. "If I told you that, I'd have to kill you." He kept his expression serious for a minute, before laughing._

"Oh my God!" Amy said, reeling from the memory that had been played in her mind. She looked up at the console, realising it had all been 'filmed' from the central column. "Is that like, your eye?"

The TARDIS made a quiet thrumming noise, and Amy laughed. "Weird." She crouched down and looked under the shelf that the memory had shown her. There was nothing there.

Another flash came before her eyes, showing the Doctor throwing the mirror contraption that he had used in Venice in to the box, then kicking it under the shelf on the right, not the left.

"Right." Amy confirmed, and spun round, seeing the box under that shelf. She pulled it out, and dug through, searching for the right gadget. Eventually she found the box with the sliding drawer, and as she stuck the ring in it, a screen flipped up. It stayed silent for a few minutes as Amy waited impatiently. Finally the screen lit up, and words started to flash across it.

A few names she didn't recognise showed up, who she assumed were involved in creating the ring. They took up 14.5% together. She assumed this mean how much they had come into contact with the ring. Next showed up, much to her surprise, Kevin Hanley, the owner of the jewellers in Leadworth, with a 12.4%. After a strange blip, and skipping a line, it showed up her own name, Amelia Pond, with a larger 49.6%.

That left a 23.5%, and a confusing situation on her hands. Perhaps if it had barely been touched at all in the past, it may account for the large percentage in her favour, but the fact that it had been bought in Leadworth, and was missing a proportion, confused her. Perhaps the Doctor didn't show up on the scan, being the alien that he is.

She reached into the box, deciding on a Rubix cube that she had seen him fiddling with, and placed it on the drawer, removing the ring. The screen lit up after a second, and showed a much longer list of names second to last showing "The Doctor", and then her name beneath his.

So now she knew the device recognised the doctor, who was the 23.5% on the ring? She dropped the gadget, and stared at the ring. "Who do you belong to?" She wondered aloud, and almost dropped it when another flash showed up in her vision, showing her another gadget in the box.

She shook her head slightly to get re-orientated, and found the device quickly. It was brightly red, with nasty yellow writing printed across, saying '_**Who owns me?**_'. Not unlike the other gadget, a screen flipped open, this time leaving a pad underneath it. She placed the ring on the pad, and winced as a cheesy jingle played, before words printed themselves across the grainy screen, saying "_**I belong to... Amelia Pond!"**_

She shook her head in disbelief, and picked up the ring, staring at it again.

"That's really weird..." She murmured, not understanding how this was happening.

She heard footsteps approaching, and quickly shoved the ring and its box in her pocket. It was, apparently, hers, so why shouldn't she keep it?

The Doctor trotted in, weirdly chipper, and looked down and Amy, crouched down by the box of 'useless' gadgets.

"What are you doing down there, Pond?"


	7. Chapter 7

"Alright." Said the Doctor, smiling genuinely enough at Amy. She smiled back encouragingly, and he turned away, climbing up the stairs, and out of the console room, leaving Amy to her own devices.

He contemplated as he walked, his fast Time Lord brain able to think much faster than humans. He considered Amy, amazing Amelia Pond, beautiful Amelia Pond. He envied her red hair, why could he never get red hair? In all of his bodies, not once had he been lucky enough to become ginger. He wondered what was going on underneath that ginger hair... He had spotted her crying without her noticing, she literally had not noticed she was crying, and he knew that she was hurting deep down. He really needed to keep an eye on her, see if any memories might present themselves, suspecting that the unearthed nursing skills had been learnt from a certain someone who had never existed. And don't think he hadn't noticed the ring had gone missing.

Another thing about Amy, she see's right through him. A bonus of knowing him most of her life, he supposed. She could see that he was upset, she could see deeply buried feelings for Rose, and she could see that he was afraid to face Rose.

He reached the doorway, and found himself hesitating, pausing ever so slightly before walking into the doorway, and leaning onto the frame.

Rose wasn't lying in bed in the centre of the room as Amy had left her, she was sitting, back to the door, looking at the photo's placed along the wall, hands under her thighs. Her small body looked so vulnerable, so defenceless, yet her presence in the room filled it, made it feel a little bit alive. It had been so long since he had been in here, right after he lost her on the beach the first time.

It had seemed so big and empty, filled with her stuff, wardrobe door slightly ajar, her clothes peeking out at him, a lazily made bed. It all had reeked of Rose, who would never be in there again. So he left too, shutting the door behind him, the TARDIS rearranging the hallway as he walked.

But impossibly, inconceivably, amazingly, she was back, sitting on the muddied bed, filling the room once again. Not completely here, but here nonetheless.

He cleared his throat to announce his presence, and Rose looked round at him with a weak smile.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" He asked her gently, feeling guilty about not anticipating the mess that would be made on the bed.

"Is that me?" She asked him, ignoring his question, instead gesturing at the photo's on the walls. He nodded. "You aren't here." She pointed out, and he shrugged.

"I've changed a bit since we last met." He told her again, and she nodded. She shuffled back onto the bed, sitting cross legged, and patted the bed in front of her, motioning for him to sit. He walked towards the bed, and hesitated, seeing just how much mud had soaked into the covers.

"We need to change that before you sleep." He told her, and she nodded, biting her lip, looking a little rejected. Seeing this he sat down awkwardly, feeling guilty, and trying to keep to the cleanest part of the bed to protect his beloved outfit. They sat in slightly awkward silence for a minute before he stood up again.

"You need to change." He informed her, pointing at her quickly, and sweeping his fringe back. "Can't be comfortable in damp, muddy clothes."

"Right." She said, standing also, and looked towards the cupboard. "All mine?" She said, curious, and somewhat excited about the prospect of 'new' clothes. She's a girl, after all.

"Yes, yes." He said, still standing self consciously for a few seconds, rolling his feet from heels to toes. Rose looked around awkwardly, before raising her eyebrows and clearing her throat awkwardly. He looked at her in confusion for a second, before realising what she was saying, and stood up straight.

"Right, yes, leaving!" He cried, and walked out of the doorway. "I'm just out here, just yell when you're done." He called back at her. He leant against the wall, and hit his forehead with the heel of his hand at his social ineptness, bringing his hands down his face, kneading into his eyes with embarrassment.

He pulled out the sonic screwdriver, staring at the green light, and extended it, scanning around for nothing in particular. He hated waiting.

"Ok, done!" She called, and the Doctor span back round, landing in the doorway again. "What do you think?" She asked, seeking approval. Her face fell as she observed his tighten. "What's wrong?"

He looked at her from the ground up. Now barefoot, showing clean flesh, the flannel apparently had done its job well, leaving behind shining red nail varnish. Next were the jeans, fitting exactly the same as they had when she last saw her. Not that he had been noticing how well her clothing fit.

The thing that stopped him was the shirt. Out of all the shirts to choose, she had decided on a high neck, capped sleeve t shirt, decorated in the pattern of the Union Jack.

"No, nothing's wrong." He said, looking into her worried eyes. "It just reminds me of the last time you wore it." He swallowed the lump in his throat. Rose watched him carefully, eventually deciding to accept his answer, before slumping down in a bean bag on the floor.

"So you're a Doctor?" Rose asked, and he contemplated what she thought that meant.

"I'm _The_ Doctor, I'm no expert in medicine. Science, maybe." He told her, sitting down in a chair beside her dressing table.

"So you can't really help with the amnesia?" She asked, and he leant back, stroking his chin in a way that looked both intelligent and smugly self satisfying.

"You're very accepting of the whole situation." He commented, and she shrugged.

"What else can I do but accept it?" She asked. "Just gotta do something about the rest of the situation now."

"Good old Rose. Proactive as ever, kind of." He chuckled, leaning forward. "How do you know we haven't kidnapped you and erased your memory?"

"It's a possibility..." She said carefully. "But I feel like I can trust you."

The Doctor smiled at her, feeling the most at ease he had been since this particular adventure had begun. Amy was right, Rose was still here.

"I know an unorthodox treatment; can be used for simple amnesia cases." He told her, and she sat up.

"What is it?" She asked, sitting up. "Can we do it?"

He chose his words carefully, so as not to overwhelm her with more knowledge than she could handle right now. Then again, if she was still Rose...

"It's making a mental connection," he explained. "By allowing someone else in there, they can see if they can dig up anything." He watched her reaction carefully.

"You're going to go... inside my mind?" She clarified, and he nodded, carefully judging her reaction. After a seconds pause, she nodded. "Ok."

The Doctor got up, suddenly anxious, but swallowed it down and walked over to Rose, kneeling down in front of her.

"Usually I would say, if there is anything you don't want me to see, just lock it behind a door, but as you don't have any memories to hide..." He trailed off, lifting his hands up to her face. "Oh, you may want to lock away getting changed. Modesty, and all that."

She nodded again, and he gently placed his fingers on her temples.

"Should I close my eyes for this?" She asked, looking up at him, surprisingly trusting.

"Whatever you feel most comfortable with." He told her. He watched her close her eyes, and marvelled at how strange it was to see her without make up. The flannel must have taken that off too. Then he marvelled about how Rose was here, under his fingertips, about to make a strong mental connection with him. He looked over her face, noticed the slight worried crease of her eyebrows, noticed how her hair had grown a bit longer, but cut in a flattering layered way.

Then he got to work. He closed his eyes too, and pushed himself into her mind. He felt her gasp at the intrusion, but she didn't fight it, relaxing somewhat, allowing him to take charge.

He noticed the wooden door to his left, presumably holding the small memory from earlier, and ignored it. He started moving backwards, and could see the memories from the last half hour slowly tick by. He felt her tense when they reached far enough back to her strong emotions from earlier, but he held them both steady, continuing to reverse, back through the doors of the TARDIS, back into the mud, seeing the man getting shot again. Then into the fog.

"That's interesting." The Doctor muttered, attempting to search through it.

"What?" She asked, relaxed again, comfortable in the white memory.

"Usually you'd expect just, nothing," He told her, his eyes squinting as he tried to see through it, "But there's fog... Haven't seen that before."

"Is that bad?" She questioned, eyes still closed, her voice low and almost husky with relaxation.

"Don't know." He told her. Satisfied that he'd seen all there was to see, he sped forwards, not lingering on the more distressing memories, and quickly walked back into his own mind. Rose blinked back into full consciousness.

"Blimey, that was weird." She muttered, watching the Doctor standing, and accepting the hand he offered. "What now?"

"Well, you don't need to rest." He told her, and she looked at him, slightly confused. "Emotional transference. You're quite calm, it's nice!"

"Well rested is an emotion?" She asked, and he looked at her sceptically.

"Hunger is an emotion. So are other biological feelings." His face expressed the sentiment of _'Duh' _wonderfully. "Come on."

He walked out of the hallway, Rose in quick pursuit, and quickly found herself back in the console room. She could see Amy crouched with a box over by the entrance to the room. The Doctor spotted her too.

"What are you doing down there, Pond?"

* * *

Why is the Bed all dirty? Why didn't they cleverly think that it would be counter productive to put a muddy Rose into a clean bed, then expect her to sleep in it? Oh, I'm sure they would have, if the author had thought ahead. Beauty of publishing chapter by chapter I guess.

I got my first critical review, and quite enjoyed it, so if you have any reviews at all, please leave them! Even if it's just to tell me you like the way I did my hair today :D

[Quick question: When does the doctor call Amy "Pond" in the tv series? I feel like I may have picked it up from reading FF, and he doesn't call her that _much _at all...]


	8. Chapter 8

"What are you doing down there, Pond?" The Doctor asked Amy, intrigued, but his mind a little too busy to work it out for himself.

"Oh," Amy said, placing the gadgets back in the box, and shoving it back under the shelf. "Nothing. Just exploring."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow inquisitively, but dismissed it, turning round to the console. Amy stood up, brushed herself off, then walked over to join the Doctor. She noticed Rose stood back, way back on the steps leading up to the main platform, looking in amazement at the console, and the way that the Doctor was moving effortlessly around it, pulling levers and pressing buttons.

"You can come a bit closer." Amy called, and Rose looked up at her, mouth slightly open. "We'll stop you from pressing anything too disastrous."

Rose obediently took two steps forward, now on the edge of the platform, and sidled round to Amy.

"It looks complicated." She said, and Amy chuckled.

"You only really need to know the basic's to fly it, the rest are to fly it well." She told her, and the Doctor glowered from the other side. "He only recently learnt those blue buttons are stabilisers."

"They are blue boringers." The Doctor said stubbornly. "Hold on, Rose." He reminded her, and she followed Amy's lead, grabbing onto the edge of the console in front of her. The ship started to shake into life beneath their feet, and she found herself being almost thrown about.

"Where are we going?" Amy called out over the engine.

"For a little walk down memory lane." The Doctor joked, flicking another switch, which may have done nothing but flip their stomachs over.

"Doctor," Amy called out again, her tone somewhat scolding. "You managed to fly this earlier without me even noticing we had moved." The TARDIS began its wheeze into materialisation. "Why don't you do that more often?"

"Not much to do with me." He told her as the TARDIS landed with a jolt. "I think she wanted to be quiet for Rose." He looked over at her, who was now straightening up, a big smile on her face. "Well done, by the way." He told her.

"What for?" She asked, but he ignored her, almost skipping in excitement to the doorway. They both followed him, stopping short when he turned back to them, looking straight at Rose.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"You have lost your memory." He told her, staring her straight in the eyes.

She looked at him, up at Amy, then back to him. "Yes..."

"You accept that you have forgotten a large chunk of your life." He continued.

"Yes..."

"You therefore also accept that there are lots of things that you don't know, and don't understand."

She paused briefly, looking up at Amy again, who rolled her eyes. "Yes."

"You're being patronising." Amy told him. He ignored her.

"This," he gestured round the room, "is a Time Machine." He watched her carefully, analysed the way her eyebrows raised slightly, how she looked slightly to the side, how she tightened her lips. All of this passed in slightly less than two seconds.

"Ok." She said, and walked around him, opening the door, and stepping out. Amy looked at him, trying not to laugh. He glared at her.

"Is there anything else, Doctor?" She asked with a smile. "How does gravity work?"

He rolled his eyes, and she walked past him too. He stared into the central column of the TARDIS. "What happened to the days when my companions were in awe of me?" He mused to her. He stayed like that for a few more seconds, before he heard Amy calling him from outside.

* * *

First things first.

What did everyone think of the FINALE? It was SO GOOD!

Anyway. The next few ones will probably be short, as I have an exam in three days, so they will be written during procrastination. Also, I seem to be lacking the people who usually check the chapters over for spelling and grammar, so it might be a bit rough. Try to look past it?

Love you all


	9. Chapter 9

_She found herself staring out of the large window, preoccupied in a memory, looking at, but not seeing, the beautiful landscape that lay before her. Her arms hugged her body, as she felt the sadness gnaw inside her. Something was bothering her, something was wrong. She was jolted back into reality as she felt herself being gently drawn into a hug._

"_What you thinking about, Jacks?" The gruff voice asked from behind, and she leant back into him, her head slotting comfortably between his shoulder and chin. She sighed._

"_It's the little things, isn't it?" She pondered aloud, and he listened patiently, stroking her hand with his thumb. "I just remembered this photo album I had, full of pictures of Rose growing up, and stuff. Then one day, it just vanished. I woulda loved to give that to her." She sighed again, sadly. Despite all of the wealth that Pete had, the wonderful life he had given her and the family, it was the little things that she missed._

_Of course she forgot all of those little things every time she realised it was _Pete_ hugging her, it was _Pete _stroking her hand, and it was _Pete_ who was nuzzling gently into her neck. Who cared about all those little things? She had Pete, the man she had lost forever, and she had her family, safe, tucked away in their own little universe._

_She giggled as the phone rang, interrupting their little moment of peace. "You better answer that." She told him, "It's probably Rose." He placed one last kiss on her neck, before going to fetch the phone, leaving Jackie staring out of the window once again._

_

* * *

_

"Doctor, are you coming?" Amy called back to the Tardis, standing a little awkwardly in the room. The Doctor joined them quickly, and looked around the room.

"Where's Rose?" He asked Amy, and she gestured back to the Tardis. He looked behind, and after a second Rose appeared from behind the Tardis, studying it closely. "Everything alright?" He asked carefully, and she looked back at him.

"Yup." She said, looking back to the Tardis.

"Nothing to comment on?" He pressed, and she looked at him again.

"It's bigger on the inside?" She asked, and he nodded. She looked at the TARDIS once more, before turning her back on it, looking around the room.

"That's all you have to say on it?" He questioned, placing his hands on his hips.

"You also told me it's a time machine. Why should it being bigger on the inside more difficult to comprehend?" She asked rhetorically. He didn't answer, stunned into sullen silence.

"What's the matter?" Amy asked in mock sympathy, and he ignored her too, instead watching Rose as she stared round the room. He watched her take in all the little elements that made this flat home.

"Is this mine?" She asked, looking back at the Doctor.

"It used to be," He said carefully. "You lived here with your Mum." She nodded, and slowly began to explore, examining the elements that made the Tyler residence. She picked up a photo album, and began to flick through the pages, looking at each page, each picture of herself growing up.

Amy picked up a newspaper that lay on the coffee table.

"June 2006." She read out. "Why then?"

"The 17th. Rose and her Mum went shopping for the day." He told her, sitting down on the sofa. "I chose to work inside the TARDIS."

"Hmmm." Amy raised an eyebrow, and the Doctor looked up at her. She tossed the paper in his lap. "It's the 18th."

He picked it up quickly, scanning the page. He checked his watch, then looked back at the paper. He stood up quickly, throwing the paper on the chair.

"Rose!" He yelled out, and she turned round quickly, a photo album grasped in her hands. "We need to leave, right now." He said sternly, checking his watch and wincing. Amy and Rose hesitated for a second, before hurriedly walk back towards the TARDIS.

Not fast enough, though. The door to the flat suddenly opened, and footsteps came running up the hallway. The Doctor grimaced, and whispered quickly to them both. "Say nothing. At all." He placed a finger on his lips, looking at them sternly.

* * *

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days! I've been busy revising and procrastinating, I'm sure you know how it is.

In other news, unless you are all bad ninjas who don't show up on traffic (but forget your ninja-like status and send me emails with reviews and telling me you are alerted to my story), is experiencing technical difficulties. This makes me sad. I like seeing how many people read. :[


	10. Chapter 10

They all listened carefully to the footsteps. Rose, being closest to the living room door, could see partially down the hallway, and could see a glimpse of a tall man in a blue suit. She looked to Amy and the Doctor for instructions, but they remained silent. Amy shrugged at her, and the Doctor looked agitated, thinking. They stayed like this for a few minutes, and Rose pressed her lips tightly together, staring at the two of them as they stood in front of the TARDIS.

"Can't we just get in the TARDIS?" Amy whispered, almost silently, and he shook his head.

Rose looked back at the man in the hallway, who had now shifted his weight to one side. She could now see all of him; the thick brown hair gelled up, the profile of his pale face. He was staring at the empty shelf in the hallway.

"Rose?" He called out, without looking at her, and she glanced at the Doctor across the room. He was frozen in place. She looked back at the man in the hallway. "Have you seen my sonic?"

She opened her mouth, shaking her head slightly in confusion, and he looked up at her. He quickly took in her new hairstyle, and took a step towards her. She closed her mouth. "Shouldn't you be shopping with Jackie?" He asked.

She opened her mouth again, unsure what to say. He took another step towards her.

"Never mind." He said, glancing back at the shelf. "I put it down there, and now it's not there. Did you move it?"

Rose kept her eyes fixed on him, deciding that by looking at the others she would give away their presence. She stayed silent. He stepped towards her again, now in the living room, barely any distance away from her at all. She could hear her heart thudding faster, and she found herself being weirdly drawn into his eyes. She knew this man, though she had no idea where from.

"Rose..." He asked slowly, this speed a contrast to how fast he had been speaking earlier. "Are you alright?"

She swallowed, and resisted the urge to step closer to him, to run her hands through his thick hair, to close the distance between the two of them. She resisted the urge to do anything but nod quickly.

She involuntary looked behind him to the Doctor and Amy, and the man in front of her turned quickly. She saw his facial expression turn from serious, confused for a blink of a second, then transform into bright happiness.

"Ohhhhhh!" He exhaled in joy. "Brilliant!" He leant back against the doorframe, surveying the scene. The Doctor nodded, almost bashfully. "Hello."

"I mean, bad in some ways, well, a lot of ways, but absolutely brilliant!" The Doctor didn't speak again, and the man looked back at Rose, excitement making his eyes gleam even brighter. He gestured to her hair. "That explains the – Ohh, brilliant!" He interrupted himself, grinning happily. "Hello" He said to Amy, waving at her like a child. She waved back, slightly confused, but grinning. This man's happiness was infectious.

He sobered up quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets. "But, I should probably leave and forget this, right?" He looked sad, and she found herself struck by the urge to comfort him. She looked to the Doctor, who looked back sternly, a warning in his eyes. She stayed as she was.

The four of them stood in silence for a few seconds, and the man in the blue suit sighed, and took his weight from the door frame. "Okay." He muttered, turning to leave.

The Doctor cleared his throat, and nodded towards the TV, where an odd looking contraption was placed. The man walked over, picked it up, and walked back into the doorway. He gave a sad smile, and looked round at them. "See you later." He told them, took a fleeting glimpse at Rose, and walked out of the flat.

The three of them looked at each other, listening as the footsteps faded away. The Doctor clapped, breaking the silence with a jolt. "Everyone back in the TARDIS, now." He instructed, leading the way, him first, followed by Amy, and Rose, after glancing round the room.

Back inside the console room, Amy was lounging on the sofa, and the Doctor was staring at the coat rack to the side of the door.

"What's happening?" Rose asked, and Amy shook her head.

Rose watched the Doctor, and after a few seconds he picked up the rack, and placed it on the other side of the door. He looked at it for a few more seconds, before picking it up and putting it back where it was. He grimaced and turned round, walking up to the console.

"What was that?" Amy asked, and the Doctor looked back to the rack, glaring at it.

"Just checking if my time line might've been polluted. I might have changed things."

"And the thing that might've been changed was the position of the coat rack?" Amy questioned. The Doctor ignored her, his eyes becoming unfocused in thought, and his lips moved like he was counting. The two women watched him as he did this, until he came back into the present. "It seems fine. I must've forgotten it."

"What happened?" Rose asked again, and he looked at her.

"I just bumped into myself. My old self." He told her, watching her carefully. Amy looked confused.

"That used to be you?" She asked, and the Doctor nodded, looking round at the fiery haired girl.

"Sorry, I never told you. Forgot about that." He flicked a switch on the console, and moved round, everyone steadying themselves instinctively as they heard the TARDIS wheeze into action. He moved around, using the controls as he explained. "Every so often, if I get hurt, I regenerate, turn into a new body. That was an old me."

"Wow." Amy said, her eyes wide.

"Have I seen it happen?" Rose asked, curious, imagining what it would look like to see one man turn into another.

"Once." The Doctor called to her, then backtracked as he considered the question. "Well, one and a half. It's complicated. You didn't much understand it then anyway."

The TARDIS wheezed into materialisation, and they all crowded round the screen, looking at the scene before them.

"London, Earth!" The Doctor explained, looking up at Rose. "The year 1987, six years ago."

* * *

Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! It's been a week since the last time I updated, and I have a good excuse! I had to revise for an exam in the middle of the week, and then after that my friends INSISTED that I had a social life, so I was busy. Also, my proof reader is experiencing 'technical difficulties', and I love procrastinating from proof reading my own work.

Love you all


	11. Chapter 11

"London, Earth!" The Doctor explained, looking up at Rose. "The year 1987, six years ago."

"Oooh, the eighties," Amy said happily. "Bad hair and worse clothes, sounds like fun!"

"Mmm." The Doctor hummed, not taking in what she was saying as he watched the screen carefully. After a few seconds he looked up sharply. "No, we're not staying, and you aren't coming out." He instructed, and she blinked in indignation.

"And why not?" She asked, hands on hips as the Doctor studies the screen again.

"These particular few hours in time are very unstable; we made huge temporal disturbances here. Good chance of a memory recall, but the fewer people we get involved, the better." He explained, not looking at her.

As the Doctor wasn't looking at Amy right that second, he didn't see the hurt in her eyes, the fact that she was blinking back tears. Rose saw them however, and looked away, preserving Amy's dignity, and feeling guilty, feeling like she had messed up whatever dynamic there had been by showing up. She chewed her nails, and Amy walked round to the other side of the console, facing away from them, her arms folded over her chest.

Now Rose felt worse. She wanted to bridge the gap that she had created between them, but lacked the knowledge how to. Instead she took a step back, and cupped her chin in her hands, releasing her nail and chewing on her lip instead. She looked at Amy's tense back, squared in annoyance and hurt, to the Doctor, bent over the screen, looking at Amy too, his eyes guilty and sad. Maybe there was more to their relationship than she had realised.

The Doctor stood up sharply, looking at Rose, and clapped his hands. "It's now or never," he told her, and stretched out a hand to her, which she took hesitantly. "Let's go." She spared a glance at Amy, who didn't turn, and left the ship with him.

Outside she couldn't see anything strange. Just a concrete road, a tarmac pavement, red brick houses. She briefly considered that she should be finding everything strange, seeing as she had never seen anything like it before, as far as she could remember, but didn't question it, unlike the Doctor, who's mind was working a two miles a minute as usual.

"Where are we going?" She asked as they walked, shuffling her hand up to the crook of his arm, more comfortable, but still strange. It didn't quite feel right. He didn't react.

"I parked her round the corner," He explained. "We can't risk being seen, it's very, very, extremely dangerous." He skipped ahead of her, like a giddy child, her hand leaving his arm. "Isn't it exciting?"

She grinned, his excitement infectious. She did indeed feel a genuine buzz growing inside her, her stomach fluttering with butterflies. She wondered if she had always felt like this on the rest of their adventures.

They reached the end of the pavement, whatever it was behind the corner obscured by the wall. They stood inches before the end of it, and the Doctor put a finger to his lips in warning. Then he carefully leant round the wall, waiting.

Rose leant round too. She saw nothing but another road, large council housing estates, and a fence around a park. She gently nudged him in the ribs. "What are we looking at?" She whispered.

"Just wait." He told her, and continued to stare at the road. She watched too, growing impatient as the minutes rolled by, her neck aching from staying in the awkward position. She sighed and straightened up, looking at the Doctor.

"I'm sorry about all this." She told him. He glanced at her quickly, but remained focused on the road.

"What?" He whispered.

"I'm making things difficult for you." She told him. He looked at her and scoffed, dismissing the apology with a wave of his hand. He tensed, and a second later she heard the familiar wheezing sound, and a minute later, a woman with blonde hair tied up in a messy bun walked into the scene, accompanied by a man in a black leather jacket, dark brown hair cut close to his head.

"Is that...?" Rose whispered, and the Doctor nodded.

"That's us." He whispered back, and then pointed behind them, to another two people she hadn't noticed. "So are they."

She watched the first Rose take the first Doctors hand, as a green car parked near them. She watched as the driver of the car began to get out, and as a rusty brown car pulled round the corner.

"Oh, God." She murmured, understanding what was going to happen, grabbing the Doctors hand for reassurance. It still didn't feel right, but it was all she had.

Then everything happened very quickly. She watched as the second version of her ran out, in front of the first, and pushed the man out of the way of the old car. She saw the first Rose and Doctor blink out of existence, and the remaining Doctor standing where she had left him, his jaw tensed with anger.

The Doctor led her back round the wall, out of view from everyone.

"What was that?" She asked him, her voice a little too loud, and he placed a finger to his lips.

"That was us. That was you, stopping your Dad from getting killed by a car, and causing a big space-time collapse problem. Not one of your finest moments." He told her.

"That was my Dad?" She asked, and peeked round the wall again, seeing them talking in the middle of the road.

"Yes." He told her. He pulled her back, looking into her eyes. "Rose, do you remember _anything_ yet?" He asked, and she squinted in frustration.

"I don't think so. I mean, it feels like I should know it, and when I met that man back at the flat, you?" She looked at him, and he nodded his confirmation. "I recognised him, he felt familiar, but I can't remember anything." She told him, covering her face with her hands in disappointment.

He watched her, sadness in his two hearts, feeling agony at seeing Rose like this. He led her to a bench, and made a decision.

This amnesia was different from most he had encountered. She should be remembering things by now, after being subject to such strong stimuli. So he would tell her instead. Tell her the story of their life, as best he could.

He led her to a nearby bench, and they both sat, Rose chewing her nails as she watched him think. He finally looked up at her, and began the story.

"It all began at 'Run'".


	12. Chapter 12

"It's now or never," Amy heard the Doctor say to Rose. "Let's go."

She heard their footsteps, and the door of the TARDIS opening, then closing behind them, leaving Amy on her own, leaning on the console, fuming.

Angry, upset, and feeling like a child again.

She was always the _weird_ kid, the one who held on to her imaginary friend, the girl who never got invited to parties. She was never asked to play, she never had a best friend, and even as she grew up, people kept their distance from her.

They kept their distance, until she decided to forget about her Raggedy Doctor, leave him behind in the past, as he had left her. She learnt to let other people in, and they learnt to accept the fiery tempered, red haired Scottish girl.

But then her Doctor came back. He returned for her, made her feel like she was the most important girl in the world; as a child he had showed her a glimpse of his world, and then took it away, returning again 12 years later, this time bringing her with him, finally accepted.

But now she was being left behind again, substituted for a newer and shinier toy.

She scolded herself as she realised she was crying; hot, angry tears, that she wiped away fiercely with the back of her hand.

She was being stupid, she knew that. The Doctor wasn't going to leave her, probably. They had fun, they were friends, and he wouldn't just decide he had enough of her. She was being irrational.

But this didn't change the way he looked at Rose, the excitement, the possessiveness with which he looked at her. They had a history; they used to be in love. The Doctor was probably still in love with her. He had been kind enough to give her a human version of himself, so that Rose could have a proper relationship.

But he had changed since then... Was he the type of man to take advantage of a girl's amnesia, if he loved her?

Probably not. He was unpredictable, he could be crazy at times, but he wasn't a bad person.

She straightened up, took in a shaky breath, and tried to think logically. Anyone would act like he was in this situation. A long lost friend returns, with no memory of your time together; you would drop everything to help them.

He was the Doctor. It's in the job description, it's in his name. He has to make her better; he wouldn't be him if he didn't.

Despite meaning causing a good friend pain?

Amy noticed the photo album on the sofa, interrupting her circular thinking. Had Rose taken that from the flat? That probably wasn't good for the time line.

She sighed, and picked up the book, flipping open the pages. On the first was a picture of Rose as a baby, one day old, eyes squinting into the camera.

Each page showed her growing up, growing her blonde hair, and Amy saw birthday's pass by, one by one. She saw Rose's hair slowly turn brown, then suddenly go back to the blonde of her childhood. She wondered if the Doctor knew she wasn't a natural blonde.

The last photo was at Christmas time. A picture of four people, two people she didn't know, Rose, and the man from the flat, the old Doctor. They were all smiling into the camera.

Amy sat down as she looked at the picture, gently caressing the page with her thumb. They all looked so happy, a little family. How could Amy replace that?

She closed the book, placing it back down on the sofa beside her. After a few seconds she stood up, stretched and looked at the central column of the TARDIS, wondering what to do now. Looking briefly at the console she could see the Doctor and Rose sitting on a bench, just talking. She didn't know how much longer she had. Something in her head was telling her it would be a while.

She wandered out of the console room, down the corridor, and stood in the doorway to Rose's room. It was so personal; everything about it reeked of Rose. She had practically redecorated it since her arrival. She walked down the corridor, and found her own room quickly, realising the TARDIS was moving things around for her.

She looked in her room, saddened at the sight. It was so plain an empty, some clothes in the cupboards, but other than that it looked nothing more than a guest room. She sighed, and picked up the neatly folded pile of clothes that the TARDIS had cleaned and laid on the shelf. As she begun putting them away, she felt something. She reached under a t-shirt, and found a small selection of photos.

She pulled them out and sat on the bed, flicking through them. They were of her and the Doctor, smiling and talking, happy before Rose had returned. They were all from inside, or nearby the TARDIS, and as she realised this she looked out to the hallway.

"You're a little bit of a spy, aren't you?" Amy said affectionately to the TARDIS, listening as it hummed innocently in response. She went back to flicking through the photos, and finally reached the last one. She didn't recognise it, compared to the others, all of which had brought back memories.

This one was of Amy and another man. Not the Doctor, although she guessed he was out of frame. She was holding hands with the man, who was wearing a black and white checked shirt under a zip up sleeveless jacket. He was looking at her smiling, while she was looking away, in the opposite direction, presumably to the Doctor.

She couldn't remember this man. At all. She had held hands with a man, inside the TARDIS, and she had no recollection of him. And she's not the type of girl to hold hands with just anyone; her lonely childhood had toughened her up, leaving her finding it difficult to let people in.

She realised that she had the same strange feeling about the photo as she did about the ring, which she took out of her pocket, staring at it. Her mind ticked away as she stared at the both of them, confusion and frustration gnawing at her.

She suddenly had an intrusion in her mind, very similar to earlier, showing her on the bed for the last few minutes, with tears running down her face. She blinked out of the vision, and felt her face, which was indeed wet. She quickly placed the ring back in her pocket, and hid the photos under her pillow, feeling guilty for no apparent reason. She felt like she was hiding something, but at this point in time, she didn't much feel like confiding in the Doctor.

She stood up, rubbed her face dry, and straightened her clothes up, making sure no signs of her emotions were showing, before making her way back to the console room.


	13. Chapter 13

The Doctor and Rose were waiting in the console room as Amy walked in. They had been for about two minutes, which had been spent mainly by Rose asking the Doctor more questions, mostly about himself, and their relationship, which he felt he had skimmed over quite professionally. Rose in reality had actually understood a lot more than thought he had told her.

They looked up as Amy approached, and they both smiled at her as she sat herself down on the sofa.

"Where are you going this time, then?" Amy asked sullenly. The Doctor didn't look up as he explained.

"As the trip down memory lane didn't exactly work, we're going straight to the source." He explained, pushing a button with a flourish. "Back to the trenches!"

"Trenches, cool." She muttered, trying to show some enthusiasm, but lacking with the necessary gusto. Rose looked at her in concern.

"Are you alright?" She asked her, and Amy plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Yep, why wouldn't I be?" She asked.

"I dunno," Rose shrugged. "You just seemed a bit..." She trailed off, and the Doctor looked up.

"Course Amy's alright, she's Amy Pond! She's brilliant." He said, grinning at her reassuringly. Despite her mood the slight attention perked her up, and she smiled back, a second later rebuking herself for giving in so easily.

The Doctor kicked the TARDIS into action, and manoeuvred it through the time vortex, with a little help from Amy. He kept one eye on the two women, always analysing the self conscious curiosity that Rose displayed, and found himself confused by the almost hostile exterior that Amy was displaying. He pondered it as they worked the TARDIS without speaking, marvelling at how quickly Amy was picking up the inner workings of his ship, knowing which buttons to press and when.

He stopped his admiration, guilty, remembering Rose standing, watching the both of them.

Within a minute the ship had landed, and he looked at the screen, choosing, as he does on rare occasions, to put safety ahead of his desire to explore.

"Hmmm." He looked at the screen, seeing the inside of what seemed to be a long hallway.

"Where are we?" Amy asked, as all three of them crowded round the screen. The Doctor didn't reply, and brought up more information to the screen, indecipherable to the humans, unable as they were to read Gallifreyan.

"What is it, Doctor?" Rose asked, her eyes widened in mild apprehension and obvious excitement.

"We are..." He started, reading the information. "About ten feet down." He said in confusion, tapping the screen experimentally, testing to see if it had malfunctioned.

"What?" Amy questioned, uncertain if this was correct in her historical understanding. She couldn't remember anything from school about this.

They stood staring at the screen for a few more seconds, until the Doctor leapt back. "Time to get moving, then!" He cried, clapping his hands together, and walked to the door, holding it open politely for the others to catch up.

They stepped tentatively into the hallway, cautious of every sound they made. They Doctor took no such heed, shutting the door loudly and practically skipping along the hallway with heavy feet. He stopped as he turned a corner, and looked at the wall.

"This is an English base." He told them, and they caught up, seeing the large union jack hung on the concrete walls.

"It's the same as my top!" Rose exclaimed, and the other two looked at her in surprise.

"Why do you always wear that top when we land in World War Two?" The Doctor asked, glaring at her, and she simply raised her eyebrows and shrugged. He walked on, and the others followed.

"Could be worse," Amy muttered. "You could have the German flag across your chest." Rose turned to look at her, slightly puzzled, and the Doctor simply grinned back to her. They continued walking, noticing closed doors occasionally, but eventually reached an end to the path, resulting in a large, metal door.

The Doctor turned to look at the two women, smiled in excitement, before reaching for the sonic screwdriver and waving it across the main lock of the door. After a second, an echoing clunk was heard, and the Doctor pulled the door open.

* * *

When I am procrastinating from important things, like revising from exams, I seem to be able to write a chapter a day, if not more. However when I have three months of nothing much to do, I get severe writers apathy. *sigh*


	14. Chapter 14

It wasn't the most welcomed he had ever felt upon opening a door. On some planets they would greet you, others would hug you, and on one particular planet in the Neblon system, people would worship those who would come through doors.

Of course, it wasn't the _least _welcomed he had ever felt upon opening a door. He remembered one of his friends from Talaptoa had quite literally lost his head when opening a door unannounced. He grew it back soon enough though.

The Doctor considered this as the door swung open, and found himself staring down the end of a gun, held by a man in army uniform. The Doctor lifted his hands into the air cautiously, and Rose and Amy followed suit.

"No weapons, we're unarmed!" He called out to him, cautiously, with authority, and just a hint of condescension in his tone, to let everyone know that he thought the man with the gun was silly.

"What's that?" The man asked gesturing with the gun slightly to the left, pointing to the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor winced internally. Completely unarmed except from the big green alien screwdriver.

"Nothing." He said quickly, wincing internally. It's always easier to pull off the _Weapons are bad, don't carry guns _attitude if you don't have a flashy piece of alien technology. Even if it is harmless. "Just a screwdriver with a torch." He surmised.

The soldier hesitated a second, keeping an eye on the screwdriver. Eventually he seemed to accept the Doctors explanation. "Identification." He ordered.

The Doctor slowly put the sonic in his jacket pocket, at the same time as reaching for the brown wallet that contained his psychic paper. He held it briefly in front of the soldier's nose.

"Mine." he said, then twisted his arm behind his back, passing it to the other hand, and brought it back to the soldier's face. "Amy." He stated, and repeated the action. "Rose."

The soldier paused fractionally, before snapping backwards, sheathing the gun, and saluting professionally. "Sorry, Sir." He barked. He went to continue, but the Doctor waved him silent.

"Don't salute. Or call me sir." He told him, looking behind him as Rose and Amy sheepishly put down their hands. "I'm the Doctor."

A noise came from within the room, and they all turned to the noise automatically. The soldier stood to attention, while the Doctor craned himself sideways to see.

"What the hell is going on here, Waldorf?" A gruff voice asked from within. The Doctor could see a large man, both in height and width, wearing a dark green uniform, adorned with medals.

"We have visitors from the Technological Advancement of Reconnaissance Design in Samsung, Sir!" The soldier in front of them, Waldorf, explained. Amy chuckled and the Doctor looked round with a grin.

"Never heard of it." The large man inside the room said.

"It's a new branch. We specialise in making routine visits, just to check in." The Doctor explained. He saw the large man beckon Waldorf over, leaving the three of them standing in the doorway.

"TARDIS, very clever." Amy said to the Doctor, and he nodded in appreciation. "But you know it made absolutely no sense."

"No one ever questions something that doesn't make sense." He told her. The three of them watched as the two men had a brief conversation, and surprisingly quickly the large man made his way to the doorway, and saluted them.

"No saluting." The Doctor reiterated, and the man lowered his arm awkwardly.

"Very well." He said, and instead extended his hand to the Doctors, which was welcomed with a cool shake. "I am General Scotson, and that is Private Waldorf. Welcome to my Base." He stood back, welcoming them into the room. "Miss Pond, Miss Tyler." Nodding to them respectively.

"Amy." She clarified, pointing to herself. "No Miss, or anything. Alright?" She said, striding confidently into the room.

"And I'm Rose." She smiled sweetly at Scotson, and he nodded again, before walking to the centre of the room, with Rose joining the group as well.

"As you can see, not much has changed since the last government visit." Scotson announced, while the Doctor scrutinised some of the panels of buttons that filled the small room.

"I don't know what it was like last visit, to be honest, Scotson." The Doctor said, moving on to the next panel.

"Were you not informed about the base's history?" He asked in surprise, and the Doctor spun round.

"Different branch, different procedures." He told him, hands folded across his chest as he leant against the side of a work bench. "It's a need to know basis, and we didn't need to know. _Now _we need to know."

Scotson blinked in surprise, but quickly covered up his emotions professionally. "This base has been here for two years, and I've been working here for a year and a half. We are experimenting with new defences against the Germans." He explained.

"Well now," The Doctor said, walking towards Scotson. "There's something that bothers me here. You said you are experimenting with defences _against _the Germans. Impossible, it's a contradiction, defence, against, it doesn't work like that. It's an oxymoron, juxtaposition, antithetical. So are you experimenting with defence, or are you experimenting with a weapon here, Scotson?"

For the few minutes that this had been going on for, Amy and Waldorf had been watching. She found herself alarmed at the sudden ferocity the Doctor was displaying, but she quickly reminded herself that the Doctor abhorred war, and as a pacifist by nature, he would rebel against a war as much as he could. He was a strange sort of pacifist though; he was thrust into confrontation by the universe at every turn.

Amy looked around to see how Rose was reacting to the situation, only to find no one behind her, only an open door, leading further inside this underground base.

"Doctor," She called out, interrupting the argument that was beginning in the middle of the room. "Where's Rose?"

* * *

So I'm going to be away for the next four days, and will probably be very tired when I get back, so it's doubtful there'll be another chapter for a bit. Unless I quickly write one now and give it to one of my lurvely proofers to publish. I'll have a go :)

Love you all


	15. Chapter 15

"Doctor," Amy called out, interrupting the argument that was beginning in the middle of the room. "Where's Rose?"

All of the men turned to look at the empty spot in the room that had just a few minutes before contained Rose. The Doctor groaned slightly, running his hand through his hair, and walked over.

"Same old Rose, can't stay put." He looked at the floor, then round to Amy, smiling. "That's why you're so brilliant, you don't wander off, you follow me. It's good."

He turned back to the General, who looked annoyed.

"She'll be fine, she always sorts herself out." The Doctor explained, but that didn't appear to be what concerned the General.

"Waldorf, go find the girl and bring her back here." He ordered. The Private obediently marched out of the door and out into the hallway. The Doctor turned to pull a face at Amy, who giggled, but quickly stopped after a stern glare from the General.

The Doctor and Scotson got back to work, bickering slightly. However, Amy was bored. She went over the Doctor's words in her mind, _same old Rose_. It was so irrational to be jealous of her, she knew it was stupid. But the Doctor had been in love with Rose... He clearly had found all of her little qualities, like wandering off, endearing, or something.

She quietly slipped back out of the doorway.

* * *

Rose found herself analysing the hallways as she walked through them. The paths were short, with twisting corners every thirty seconds or so, and other hallways forking off. The walls, floors, doors and ceilings were grey with a single coloured stripe that changed ever y so often, and everything was made of dull metal, but her soft shoes didn't allow her footsteps to echo. Every so often there seemed to be piping running down, ending in a small glass screen, with handles to adjust the height. She looked into one, and could see the trenches, ten feet above. She quickly looked away, placing the item back as she found it.

After about five minutes she started to get worried. The winding, identical corridors would be impossible to navigate back, she could be getting hopelessly lost because of her sudden urge to explore. It's not like she was even finding anything exciting.

She sighed, and turned on her heel, heading back for the main room, but as predicted, had no idea how to get there. She kept reaching crossroads and forked junctions, and each time had to guess which route to take, getting more and more lost as she realised this wasn't the way she had come.

Eventually she found herself in a new section, a longer, straight corridor with orange stripes, with five doors on each side, and one at the end. She deliberated for a few seconds, checked behind her to see if anyone was around, before pushing open the first door on her right.

It was a small bedroom, sparsely furnished, with a small, plain bed, made with precision. There was a bed side table, but with no decorations or ornaments on it.

Rose closed the door, and opened the one on the opposite side. This one was fundamentally the same, but different. It was the same size, with the same plain bed, the covers folded neatly, but the room had small touches, little things which made it feel a little bit more lived in. To start with, a small sepia toned photograph sat in a frame on the bedside table, and several books lay on the floor. In the corner of the room sat a gramophone, just on the floor. Rose knelt, looking at it with curiosity, before taking the handle and turning it carefully. Crackly music began to play from the machine.

_Smile though your heart is aching;__  
__Smile even though it's breaking.__  
__When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by._

She smiled, almost as if the song was a direct instruction to her, and let go of the handle. The music slowed and stopped, and Rose stood up, looking down at the ancient instrument.

She heard something behind her, and quickly spun round to see Private Waldorf behind her. She froze in surprise, though quickly opened her mouth to offer some form of excuse. He waited.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." She trailed off uselessly, no idea how to explain being in here. "It's nice music." She said awkwardly, gesturing vaguely towards the gramophone.

He watched her with caution, and she felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny of his gaze. "Is this your room?" She asked, and he looked around.

"Yes, Miss." He said, and she stepped carefully to the side, politely surveying everything. She saw a poster on the wall of a dark haired woman, posing sultrily in an over the shoulder shot, with a scrawled autograph saying 'Jazzy B' at the bottom. She suspected this sort of picture would have been risqué for the era, though tame in her own time. She pondered briefly how she could tell these cultural differences apart with no memories of either time.

"She's pretty." Rose commented. "Do you know her?"

Waldorf looked at her again, this time with curiosity. "No, she's a model. Do you know her?" He asked with care, and she shook her head, smiling politely at him. He almost looked disappointed. "We should be getting back."

He lead her with ease back through the corridors, and seemingly in no time at all found themselves back in the original room with the Doctor and General Scotson.

"How did you do that?" Rose asked in amazement.

"It's a relatively simple layout design; each corridor leads into many others." He explained, any friendly attitude displayed earlier had vanished in the presence of his superior officer. He left her to go to a work station, studying some sort of plans.

The Doctor finally deigned to look round, and smiled at Rose. His eyes widened slightly, and he swiftly stood up straight, looked round then back at Rose.

"Now where's Amy got to?" He said exasperated.

* * *

Sorry that this chapter took for ever... I _did_ write it before I went, and sent it to a friend to publish for me, but due to lack of communication, I didnt realise he wasnt there... So. Here you go!


	16. Chapter 16

"_Same old Rose, can't stay put."_

"_That's why you're so brilliant, you don't wander off, and you follow me. It's good."_

Though the comparison between her and Rose was well intended, and even in the guise of a compliment, the words stung. _Same old Rose. _

While Amy follows. Follow him everywhere, like a little puppy dog. It had always worked for them in the past, but apparently wandering off worked well for Rose and The Doctor. Why should it be exclusive to them?

Her thoughts ran repetitively in circles as she wandered down the metal corridors, paying attention to the coloured lines on the walls. She figured out the system fairly quickly, seeing the similarities to Hospital layouts from her childhood, but had no idea as to what the colours represented. Seeing a choice between white and green before her, she turned left, following the white strip. The corridor she walked into was identical to the previous one, and she continued her journey, beginning to get bored.

* * *

'_Not quite right... Something here is not quite right.'_ The Doctor pondered as he looked through the console. '_It's aesthetically historically correct, not that that proves anything. Smells right, muggy._'

General Scotson watched carefully as the Doctor examined all of the equipment, bent so far over that his nose brushed the surface more than once. He watched in mild shock when he very quickly poked out his tongue and licked the controls.

'_Interesting... Slightly sulphuric, that shouldn't be there. Sulphur, __**S**__, 16, Brimstone and fire? Probably not. Fertiliser? Could be used as bombs? Maybe, possibly, probably not, they're more sophisticated, maybe. What's that?'_

He noticed a small hinge on the console, and looked back to Rose, gesturing slightly with his head towards the General. She looked confused, but clued on quickly.

"General Scotson?" She called over, somewhat shyly from the other side of the room and he looked up. "Is it just you and Waldorf down here?"

The Doctor used the General's brief distraction to whip out the sonic screwdriver, and put it back in his pocket just as quickly. Scotson looked back to the Doctor, and satisfied that he could be left to his own devices there, walked over to Rose.

"Yes, ma'am, although we tend to get a regular rotation of new staff down here."

"How?" She asked, batting her eyes ever so slightly at him. "Aren't we underground?"

"Same way as you, I believe." He told her, narrowing his eyes, suspicious.

"Of course." She corrected herself, nodding.

The Doctor motioned for her to continue as he opened the small compartment. It was mainly empty, the area no bigger than two average wallets, while only housing one. The Doctor carefully lifted it out, flicking through it. It was mainly standard ID for a General in WWII, although at the back, highly out of place was a photo of a dark haired young woman, posed looking over her shoulder, in what the Doctor supposed to be fairly uncomfortable, though she carried it with a sultry seductiveness that he had seen in Amy several times. _'Moving on...'_ The scrawled words '_Jazzy B'_ were printed on it.

Carefully placing the wallet back into the compartment and closing the lid, he turned round, tuning back into the conversation behind him.

"So what do you do about food here?" Rose asked, placing a hand on her stomach, seeing that the Doctor had finished.

"We ration just the same as at home." The General explained, looking back to the Doctor. He blinked, hesitating a second before snapping back into action. He clapped his hands together and strode over to meet them.

"Yes, food, hungry!" He said with a broad grin. General Scotson looked at him sternly.

"We should find your friend first. It is very easy to get lost in here." He looked at Waldorf. "Go with them."

* * *

Amy continued her wander through the corridors, making sure to keep to the white band, so she could at least find her way back. She could see how easy it would be to get lost in this labyrinth, and only hoped that there wasn't a Minotaur stalking these hallways too.

As she reached another corridor, she noticed it stretched to the right as the others had before, however to the left it ended in a big, metal door. She walked up to it, and tentatively placed a hand in the centre, judging it with caution. It was polished to a high shine, with two metal bands stretching along it, and a small '**Authorised Personnel Only**' sign was screwed in. She stroked her hand across the door, and placed her cheek to the door, feeling the cold metal, and trying to work out how the door would open. As far as she could gather, it would slide back into the door frame. She just couldn't see how to do that.

But she wasn't one to leave a locked door untried. She tapped it gently with her knuckles, grimacing in annoyance. She knew The Doctor would be able to open this quickly with the sonic screwdriver, but she was reluctant to accept defeat just yet.

Her plans were cut short by the gradual sounds of feet and voices approaching. Judging the echo of the hallways, she probably had about half a minute before they reached her. She stepped back cautiously; peeking back down the hallway she had come from, and seeing they weren't there yet, quietly ran along the one she was already in, thanking her common sense for wearing her usual quiet plimsolls, which didn't create loud echoing footsteps. She turned into a corridor on her right, and ran along it, slowing down when she saw a passage starting to her right again. She switched into a casual gait, and stepped out into the corridor.

She guessed her logic skills must have been heightened from travelling with The Doctor, and silently congratulated herself on anticipating the corridor she would find herself reunited with the group. She stood in the junction, watching them walk. She could hear The Doctor rambling on about something or other to the mildly interested Waldorf, not looking at a bored Rose. This last detail made her happier than it should have done.

"Well, yes, Winston is very busy. Very. Don't you think he's slacking, he's trying his best to win this war, even tried cheating a bit. I stopped him, don't worry." He looked up, seeing Amy before him. "Amy! There you are! Where did you get to?"

"Nowhere in particular. Just loads of corridors." She told him, knowing it would be best to not talk about the door in front of Waldorf. The Doctor nodded in understanding, and quickly changed the subject.

"Right, Dinner!"

* * *

I'm sorry about the long wait :( I got myself out of writing mode, and even worse, out of Doctor Who mode. Sad times. So I rewatched the begining of series 5 again, it did the trick!

I forgot to mention, the first hints of something being amiss were in chapter 15. See if you can spot it :)


	17. Chapter 17

Private Waldorf led them back through the corridors with ease, walking a few feet ahead, talking easily with Rose, as The Doctor and Amy lingered behind.

"Doctor," Amy whispered, gaining his attention. "I found something."

"What?" He whispered back, curiosity burning. He knew something was wrong.

"A door, a big, metal door. I couldn't get through, but I bet the screwdriver can." She told him, and his eyes lit up with delight.

"Brilliant!" He cried, a little too loudly as Rose and Waldorf turned round. "Purple for food?" He asked.

"Yes, Doctor." Waldorf confirmed, before going back to the conversation with Rose.

"Did you find anything?" Amy asked the Doctor, and he shook his head.

"Nothing much." He said seriously. "But something's not right."

"Something's not right?" Amy gasped in mock surprise. "Shocker."

"On the plus side," He continued, ignoring her interruption. "I worked out where we are."

"Where are we then?"

"The Secret Trenches." He explained in hushed tones. "Churchill's Bunkers on the front line. Kept top secret, no one ever found out about it till you lot discovered Time Travel."

"Cool." Amy murmured, looking at her surroundings in awe. "But how did we end up down here?"

"I don't know yet." He told her. They could see an open doorway to the left ahead of them, which quickly became apparent to be the dining hall. "We'll go for a wander tonight."

The four of them entered the small hall, half filled with one long table, and the other with a rudimentary kitchen. They sat down at the table, Amy and Rose perching on the metal seats uncomfortably, The Doctor lounging back, kicking his feet onto the table. Rose looked at him sternly, and after he caught her gaze, he readjusted to a more conventional position.

Within a few minutes Scotson and Waldorf were placing meals in front of them, and their guests began to tuck in with enthusiasm that decreased after the first few bites. Amy found the watered down stew disgusting, even as a Scottish person, and Rose, who could not remember eating before in her life was suppressing a grimace. However, The Doctor was shovelling it down with glee, and, as usual, speaking as he ate.

"So how exactly did we get down here?" He asked, placing another spoonful of the watered down meal in his mouth. Amy and Rose eyed him with caution, while the army officers looked at him with mild surprise.

"Don't you know?" The General asked, and the Doctor shrugged.

"We were only told it _would_ work. Not how." Amy chipped in, eliciting a proud smile from the still eating Doctor.

"Well," Began the General. "It's not easy to explain. There is a precise spot above us where the transport is available, and unless there is an anchor to the top, you will be brought down here."

The Doctor snapped his head round to look at Rose, or more specifically, the necklace around her neck. She looked back, slightly self-conscious, but he quickly turned back to the General.

"More than just a gravitational pull, it has to be a trans-dimensional quantum jump." He told him, and the General nodded. "That's pretty advanced technology you have there."

"I didn't make it; I just used it to get down here." The General said, almost in defence. The Doctor leant back in his chair, abandoning his almost finished meal.

"Yet you seem to understand it pretty well." He said with thinly veiled accusation, though no one knew of what he was accusing. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, The General with annoyance, The Doctor with excitement.

Waldorf broke the tension by clearing his throat. "Perhaps it is time for bed." He announced, and the rest mumbled in agreement.

* * *

Apologies to all, I am going to be away for two weeks, very likely without internet access :( I am going to try to write a few chapters tonight, and give it to a friend to upload, but it wont be much. I am sorry, my lovelies, but I promise you I thought up something exciting for later on in the story!


	18. Chapter 18

Waldorf led the party back to where Rose had found earlier, the bedroom section. Rose, Amy and the Doctor were given a room each on the right, while Waldorf and General Scotson retired to their rooms on the left. Amy checked her phone as she sat down on her bed. Half eleven. Unfortunately, one of the many perils of time travel is that your biological clock is often not the same as the culture you land in. It felt like early evening to her.

She leant back on the bed and waited. She had at least half an hour until they would go to investigate the door, and the sparsely decorated room meant there was no chance of entertainment.

She pulled the box out of her pocket, and opened it, staring at the shiny ring inside. Once again she let the mystery revolve in her mind, spinning until it became one big question of **WHO?**

She heard a gentle tapping on the door, and after shoving the ring and its box back in her pocket, she got up and opened the door.

"Hi." Rose said. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." Amy shrugged, and sat back down on the bed, hugging her knees. Rose perched at the other end of the small bed, and looked at Amy with concern.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Amy retorted with hostility.

"You're crying." Rose pointed out hesitantly, and Amy quickly touched a finger to her cheek, wiping away the damp.

"Don't worry about it. It happens a lot."

"Are you sure?" Rose asked, looking like she wanted to move closer, but lacking a warm reception from Amy she didn't.

"Just drop it." Amy snapped. They sat in awkward silence for a minute, while Rose plucked up the courage to talk again. Eventually she spoke.

"Look," she began. "What did I do to upset you?"

Amy looked up in shock. "No, those weren't about you. I don't even know what they're about." Amy tried to explain, but Rose shook her head.

"I don't mean that. It's just that I get the feeling that you don't like me a whole lot." Rose suggested, and Amy furrowed her eyebrows. She hadn't been acting sulky about Rose being with them, it was much more to do with the fact that since the moment Rose had arrived, she had stolen all of the Doctor's attention away.

'_Wow.'_ Amy thought. '_I am such a child.'_

"No," Amy tried to explain. "I mean, I've never met you before today."

Rose nodded. "I know, which is why it's even weirder."

Amy shrugged, releasing her knees so she sat crossed legged. "Look, the Doctor seems to like you a lot, so I'm sure you're lovely."

"Oh..." Rose sighed as understanding dawned on her. "I see."

"What? What do you see?" Amy asked.

"You like him." Rose said pointedly.

"No!" Amy cried, immediately on the defensive. "No, I mean, he's the Doctor."

"Yes, you like him and you're afraid I'm going to take him from you." Rose giggled.

"Shut up. Don't be stupid." Amy said childishly. "He's not mine anyway."

"But you want him to be." Rose stated, and Amy shook her head stubbornly. She felt like a teenager again, gossiping with her friends about who likes who.

"You can have him if you want him." Amy suggested, ignoring the dull little pain in her stomach that occurred the same time the mental image of Rose and The Doctor _together_ did.

"No." Rose sighed, shuffling back until her back hit the wall. "I don't think it's a good idea to start anything when you're suffering from total amnesia." She grinned at Amy. "He's all yours."

"You two have all that history together. It's perfect." Amy pointed out.

"Ah, but he changed, didn't he. He said when he changes his body, his personality changes too. He leaves a bit of himself behind, and starts new." She explained, eyebrows creased a fraction in mild confusion. "He left me behind, and started with you. You're his present."

"Weird..." Amy said, thinking about the process. The Doctor had told her basically nothing about it. She snapped back to reality. "You're still better for him."

"No." Rose chuckled. "Plus, I apparently have someone back home, the clone of the Doctor, or something. I could be married, with kids." Rose looked wistful.

Amy could feel the stacks piling in her favour, and spoke without thinking.

"I was engaged!"

She blinked in surprise at her statement, not understanding where it had come from. Rose was about to make a jokey comment back, but quickly saw from Amy's expression that the tone had changed.

"Amy, are you okay?" Rose said, leaning closer towards Amy. "You're crying again."

"Am I?" She asked, and pressed a palm to her cheek, squashing the damp. "I don't know why I said that."

"Were you?" Rose asked, and Amy wiped her cheek, and again as she felt more tears fall.

"I don't know." She whispered. "Something really weird is happening."

Rose was about to press further into the conversation when a knock was heard at the door. They shifted apart, and Amy wiped away the tears just in time before the Doctor flung the Door open.

"Come in." Amy joked, putting on a happier face to hide the turmoil inside.

"Come _on._" He replied. "We're going to go open that door."

* * *

So I had NO access to internet at all while I was there, and begun to get withdrawl symptoms (it was horrible), but I managed to write out quite a few chapters! This one I actually wrote before I left, but due to classic emailing attatching errors, my friend wasnt able to upload it... so. Please don't hate me.

3


	19. Chapter 19

The three of them left the bedroom, creeping as quietly as possible so not to disturb their sleeping hosts. Amy and Rose exchanged glances, questioning each other on the possibility that The Doctor might have heard their conversation, though not able to discuss it out loud. Amy remembered times when he had overheard conversations of hers, but not interrupted, like back in the Maze of the Dead with River.

They walked in silence, an unusual occurrence for The Doctor, until they reached the main room again. Finally they spoke.

"Can you get back to the door from here?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Amy said, and began to lead the way, following her memories.

"Have you found anything?" Rose asked The Doctor, and he shook his head.

"Nothing much of importance, although importance is relative." He began to explain, and the two girls rolled their eyes as they sensed a rambling talk headed their way. "The head Raja of the Twenty-Fifth century court of Earth Counselling didn't think the roasted nutmegs would be anything of importance, but that turned into a huge diplomatic incident, didn't it?"

"Doctor..." Amy warned.

"Sorry." He apologised, smiling back to Rose. "The technology is far too advanced, even for a top secret government base."

"How advanced?" Amy asked, squinting as she tried to remember her way.

"Looks like undeveloped thirty-second century technology. Definitely human, but nothing that explains all of this." He explained.

"So we haven't got any further?" Amy asked.

The Doctor paused before answering, as stubborn as Amy was when it came to admitting defeat. "No. Not really." He suddenly stopped and stared at Rose. "What are you singing?"

Neither Rose nor Amy had noticed her singing until the Doctor pointed it out, but suddenly realised she had been doing so for about half a minute, up until the second the Doctor had mentioned it.

"I don't know," Rose muttered defensively. "Is it important?"

"Very possibly." The Doctor mused, and they started moving again. Amy grinned triumphantly as they found the white stripe along the wall, and followed it with more purpose. "It was Smile, by Nat King Cole, right?" The Doctor asked the two girls, and they both shrugged. "It was one of my favourite songs of the time. So why were you singing it?"

"I found it in Waldorf's room." Rose explained, and the Doctor suddenly looked excited.

"Did you now..." The Doctor pondered, leaving the two girls slightly confused. Amy was leading them faster now, and turned round to announce her triumph as they reached the last corner.

"And voila!" She cried as they walked round the corner to reach the door, yet all halting a second later as they found Private Waldorf waiting for them.

"Oh." The Doctor said.

* * *

Does anyone else have Nerimon's 'The Doctor is Dying' stuck in their head?


	20. Chapter 20

"Oh." The Doctor said, watching as Waldorf straightened up. "Lovely night for a stroll, isn't it?"

"Save it." Waldorf replied, walking up to them, a small rucksack on his back. "I know you're here to get through the door."

"Well." The Doctor said, and the four of them stood in awkward silence for a few seconds, each party unsure of how the other would react. "What are you doing here?" He continued.

"I've been here two months and never got through." He eyed the team before him. "I get the feeling you might have more luck."

"Aren't you working for the General?" Rose pointed out, and he shrugged, not bothering to explain his story. He stepped aside, and gestured for The Doctor to start working on the door.

The Doctor took a step towards him, close enough for their noses almost to touch, and he looked him straight in the eyes. Not the way a normal person would, he did it in his own special way, almost trying to look through them, his eyes never wavering. Amy often thought he was just trying to check out his own reflection.

"No... You don't work for the General, do you? That's what the General thinks, he doesn't know you're here working for someone else." The Doctor guessed, and Waldorf's stoic silence was enough of a confirmation for him. "In which case, why should I open the door for you?"

"I'm here for the same reason you are. Curiosity." He said, and the Doctor shiftily looked back to Rose. "And I'm fairly sure that whatever Scotson is doing in there isn't pretty."

The Doctor looked to Amy, who shrugged. He turned back to Waldorf. "Alright then, let's see what's through this door!" He whipped out the sonic screwdriver, and started experimenting with the settings. "Oooh, tricky. Very tricky."

Waldorf looked at the sonic with surprise, then surveyed the group in front of him. "Where did you say you were from again?" He asked cautiously. No one answered, the only sound being the high pitched hum of the screwdriver, until the door clunked loudly, swinging open a fraction. The Doctor looked to the three people behind him, grinning widely, and pushed the door open.

It swung open easily, giving the impression that it was used often. The room behind it was pitch black, and the Doctor fumbled around before he found the hanging cord and tugged it. "Let there be light." He quipped. In front of him, on the left wall of the room, was a large panel with various switches, buttons and levers, as complex as the TARDIS console, though far more professional looking.

Amy, Rose and Waldorf were facing the other direction, attempting to peer through a thick glass wall. The light from the room they were in wasn't quite reaching through the glass, leaving the room there still darkened, and they could only make out the paved floor immediately at the front of the room. "One way window?" Amy guessed, and the Doctor spun round to see what they were looking at, and quickly moving on to find the second hanging cord from the ceiling, and tugged it, illuminating the second room.

They all blinked, almost in unison, as they took in the sight in front of them, a huddled, quivering thing. Rather, something that used to be a man, but had been deformed so far from himself that he was no longer human. His hair hung long in clumps on his balding head, his skin discoloured to a repulsive grey-green shade, with bizarre welts, growths and unidentifiable distortions peppering his exposed flesh. His clothing was a faded brown, battered and torn, vaguely identifiable as an old army uniform.

A second after the light switched on, the man turned, painfully slowly, still shuddering, to face them. His face was also sprinkled with the same growths, and his yellowing eyes were dribbling a nauseating amber gooey substance. His face was swollen, as if the muscle tissue beneath the skin had grown, leaving his eye squinting, and his mouth twisted into a grimace. As he stood up they could see his body was also swollen, hunchbacked, with a very visible limp, even without walking. He reminded Amy of the cartoon character of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

"Oh my God." Murmured Rose, the first to speak, and the man stiffened at the sound of her voice. He cocked his head, and took a step towards the glass, looking in their direction. He placed a bloated hand on the glass.

The Doctor placed his hand on the glass too, his hand dwarfed by the one on the other side.

"Oh you poor man," The Doctor sighed. "What's been done to you?"

They were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the General clearing his throat from the doorway, announcing his presence.

* * *

Would like to announce my A Level results! Three C's, which is good enough to get into the university of my choice! Yay to me!

Would like to thank everyone who is reading along, and especially to those leaving reviews! I love you all xx


	21. Chapter 21

"Ah." The Doctor spoke first, his face stony. "Hello."

Scotson surveyed the group in the room, his gaze staying slightly longer on Waldorf, who met his stare evenly.

"What the hell is going on in here?" He asked, not without anger in his voice. As he spoke, the man behind the glass began to howl inhumanely, making the entire group jump. Rose placed a hand over her mouth, Amy took a step closer, shock in her eyes, and the Doctor turned to him, before back to the General.

"I think we should be asking you that." He replied, taking a step towards him. "So what the hell _is _going on here?" He asked, attempting to stare him down. The Doctor had dealt with all sorts in his life, men who were cowards, men who were bullies, men with guns. The General appeared to be a mixture of the last two, and pulled a gun from behind him, aiming it directly at the Doctors forehead.

"Get out." He told him over the howling.

"Now, you see, I've had plenty of experience of people like you. More than just people as well. I've had more guns of every different sort that you can imagine, and more, pointed at me, and I have survived every single time." _Kind of._ He thought. "So I'm not impressed with guns. Not at all."

General Scotson held it there a second more, analysing the situation. This Doctor was clearly some sort of pacifist, one of those do gooders, not prepared to go the whole way to win this war. And he didn't seem to be disturbed by the gun. However, he might be more concerned about his friends... He carefully considered his body language, the way he was standing protectively guarding Rose. That wouldn't be a problem to shoot around, but he was more interested in the way he was interacting with Amy, leaving her open, but the way he was facing towards her, how his hands were reaching fractionally in her direction all indicated some sort of repressed feelings there.

He moved the guns aim from the Doctor's head, and pointed it directly to Amy. Her eyes widened slightly, and glanced at the Doctor, but quickly straightened up, squaring her jaw defiantly. The Doctor clenched his jaw, mirroring her slightly.

"Get out." The General repeated, and he could see the internal battle going on behind the Doctor's eyes. A second later he and Amy answered in unison.

"No." They said together, and after turning quickly to grin at each other, the Doctor turned back to the General.

"Put down the gun." He instructed.

He didn't. The Doctor had almost judged him correctly, not being able to kill an unarmed woman standing in front of him. He was, however, alright with wounding her. He pointed the gun down to her leg and pulled the trigger.

* * *

So my friend was annoyed at me for this chapter. He has a thing for Amy. Please don't also be annoyed. Everytime you get annoyed at me, Matt Smith loses a fez.

x


	22. Chapter 22

The Doctor was right. Even the Army-weathered General couldn't kill Amy point blank.

That didn't mean he liked how the situation developed. He watched as the bullet left the gun. He watched as it moved through the air. He watched, powerless to stop it, as it rammed into Amy's right thigh.

He ran to her as she dropped, yelling in pain. She stopped after a second, silencing herself by clenching her teeth, but unable to stop the moan of pain escaping her lips. She felt the Doctor press his palm hard down on the wound, and she winced away from him, but he held tight.

He looked up at the General, who had his gun still pointed, back to the Doctor.

"Last warning, Doctor." The General said. "Get out."

He gritted his teeth, his moral compass flickering between helping the tortured man, and saving his Amy.

Of course it was no competition. It never had been.

He very carefully cradled her, placing one arm around her back, the other under her knees, and pulled her up. She yelped in pain again, and pressed her face into the Doctor's chest for comfort as her leg throbbed, pushing more blood out of her. She vaguely remembered being told there were important arteries in the thigh, and wondered if it had been hit. She heard a ripping nearby, and soon felt something being tied painfully tight around the wound.

The Private led the way, followed by The Doctor and Amy, Rose close behind, then Scotson, still pointing the gun at them.

"Don't try anything, Doctor, or Rose is next." He warned, and the Doctor held his tongue, concentrating on remaining as steady as possible for Amy. They took a short cut, ending up at the other end of the long hallway that the TARDIS sat in, and quickly back at the blue doors. If the General felt any surprise about their choice of transport, he didn't show it.

The Doctor, Amy and Rose quickly got into the Tardis, and the Doctor carefully placed Amy down on the sofa. He instructed Rose on what to get from the medical room, and she ran to get it.

Waldorf stood outside a second longer, making eye contact with the General, and gently shook his head in disgust, before following the others, closing the door behind him.

"Amy?" The Doctor said, and she looked up at him, her face pale as he unwrapped the makeshift bandage. "I'm going to have to take out the bullet first. I won't lie to you, it's going to hurt." She nodded, and grabbed his free hand.

He held the sonic screwdriver directly over the wound, hoping it was following the path the bullet had already made. He flicked the screwdriver on, and quickly looked Amy in the eyes. She looked scared, and he realised he had never seen her so vulnerable. He felt like he was back with little Amelia Pond again, telling her everything was going to be fine. He leant down carefully, and gently pressed his lips to her forehead, lingering for just a second, before straightening back up, squeezed her hand, and flicked on the magnet setting.

She cried out in pain again as she felt the bullet being dragged backwards out of the wound, crushing The Doctors hand in her own. The bullet connected with the screwdriver with a click, and the Doctor placed them both on the floor. Amy blinked away the tears in her eyes, panting as she stared at the ceiling.

Rose was by their side, passing the Doctor the bandages. He took it from her, and swiftly began wrapping it round Amy's leg. "This isn't any old bandage." He told her soothingly. "Got it from the same place I got those flannels. They help heal, rather than just let it do its own thing. You'll be fine in an hour or two." He told her, standing up abruptly, scolding himself for letting himself get too close to her.

'_Can't do that sort of stuff. Off limits. Stop it.'_ He scolded himself.

'_I was comforting her! She just got shot in the leg, she needed comforting!'_

'_That sort of _comforting_ was exceedingly unnecessary. She's off limits.'_

'_Comforting!'_

'_And you enjoyed that _comforting_ just a bit too much.'_

'_Shut up. Eyes front.'_

He looked to Waldorf, who seemed to be admiring the view. "Anything to say?" He asked.

* * *

So, I'm sorry about that... But it was necessary! I promise! xx


	23. Chapter 23

"Anything to say?"

He looked to the Doctor. "Impressive. I take it this is designed with four, maybe even five dimensions?" He asked.

The Doctor scowled. "Why does no one say 'it's bigger on the inside' anymore? I always look forward to that bit." He moaned, glaring at Amy as she sat up. She looked confused, and he quickly looked away.

'_She forgot that bit. Be more careful.'_

"What's your first name? Let's drop the formalities."

"Arthur." He said. "And yours?"

"Just the Doctor." He explained, and Arthur nodded, an eyebrow raised. The Doctor leant back against the railings, watching as Amy stood up, testing her leg. "Careful." He warned her, and turned back to Arthur.

"So, you're a Time Traveller. Explain." He demanded, crossing his arms.

Arthur looked taken aback. "I'm a Time Agent."

"Technicalities." He dismissed with a wave of his hand. "You need to be more careful."

"How so?"

"Smile, by Nat King Cole. Rose was singing it. One of my favourite songs of the era." He explained smugly. "Wasn't made for at least another ten years."

"Oh, that was on purpose." He retorted with equal smugness.

"Why?"

"Time agents have a few tricks to help recognise each other. The official ways are with code words, but we find using cultural items a few years before they exist work more efficiently." He explained. "We also have our poster girl. Somewhat frowned upon by the authorities, but everyone uses it."

"Ah." The Doctor said appreciatively.

"That's why I let Rose get into my room." He explained, glancing over at her, who was listening intently. "I suspected you lot were Time Agents, just had to double check. Although she didn't seem to pick up on the tricks, which probably means you're not from my time."

"Well she wouldn't recognise it." The Doctor pointed out.

"So you _are_ from my time?" He asked.

"No." He stated. "What gave us away then?"

"The fact that since I arrived, only time agents have ever come down there." He told him.

The Doctor was curious. "Why do so many come?"

"The secret base has only recently been discovered, Archaeologists are desperate to examine it." He explained.

"You're an archaeologist?"

"No." He said sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. "I'm a gaming researcher."

"What's that?" Rose asked as she saw The Doctor's smirk.

"He works for the virtual gaming industry, going back in time to make sure war games are as realistic as possible." He looked back to him. "Must be really... fun."

"Not on assignments like this." He told them with a sigh. "I'll be lucky if this even gets a single level of the game."

The Doctor scoffed, and changed the subject. "What did you bring with you? You must have had field equipment."

"All in this bag." Arthur shrugged off the rucksack, and tossed it to the Doctor. "Stocks of the obvious gaseous psychological elements: Context and Amnesiacs."

"AHAH!" The Doctor cried, pointing at Rose, who looked taken aback.

"What?" She asked, and he hesitated before turning back to Arthur.

"Continue." He instructed.

"We have basic technology to create hidden stations, if need be, and each pack is fitted with retrieval technology."

"Retrieval technology? What's that?" The Doctor asked.

"If the pack is lost, when it next comes in contact with a human it will transport itself back to the time it was lost." He explained.

"AHAH!" Repeated the Doctor, turning back to Rose.

"What?" She demanded, and he squinted his eyes.

"Hold on, I think we have one more before I get there." He turned back to Arthur. "Continue."

"That's mainly it." He shrugged. "It's the latest version, the previous packs were prone to malfunctioning."

"Malfunctioning how?" The Doctor asked.

"Sometimes the gas would leak, affecting the Agent. The Context is the only one meant for the Agent, while the Amnesiac is for any local who might find out anything. Sometimes the pack would accidentally set them off, which would wipe the Agents memory. In some cases it would leak with the Context, which causes big problems."

"They believe their own back story?" The Doctor finished, his voice a mumble as his brain ticked into action, putting two and three and four together. He waved to Arthur to stop him from talking as he kept thinking, his fingers dancing as if writing in the air. "What was the poster girl's name?" He asked.

"The Trick?" Arthur confirmed, and The Doctor nodded. "Jazzy B."

The Doctor grinned widely, and spun back to face Arthur. "Fantastic, oh fantastic_!_" He cried, clapping his hands together. "Do you know what this means?"

"What?" Arthur demanded, but the Doctor's face fell serious again, his fingers returning to their thinking dance, his eyes drifting and his mouth moving silently. "What?" Arthur repeated.

"Be quiet, he's thinking." Rose instructed, and stood up, amused by The Doctor's 'thinking' face, standing close to him.

"AHAH!" He cried again, making Rose jump back in shock.

"Are we there yet?" She asked, rolling her eyes, and he grinned again, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Yes. Very much so." He told her, and began to explain. "Not sure how, but you got hold of one of those packs. Boom! Zipped you over here, quite an impressive range on those things," He turned to Arthur, who tried to interrupt but didn't have the chance. "The TARDIS immediately comes to pick you up. Lucky we were in her at the time, really."

"She just came to pick me up, of her own accord?" Rose asked.

"Well, when I saw you last, I slipped this necklace in your pocket." He gently tapped the necklace round her neck, and she looked down at it, pulling it away from her so she could see. "It's emits a homing signal to the TARDIS, so that if you were to ever cross the universes again, I'd find you."

"Aw..." Rose cooed.

"Well." He blushed, but quickly continued. "You inhaled some of the Amnesia gas; we landed and took you away. When we came back, without the necklace to anchor us, we landed down, rather than in the trench. Understood?"

"I think so." Rose said. Her eyes unfocused as she replayed it in her head. "Yup, sounds about right."

"No, not everything." Called over Arthur, and they both turned to look at him. "The retrieval device wouldn't have pulled Rose through too, it's not strong enough."

"Ah, but Rose is special." The Doctor said proudly, patting her on the shoulder.

"Even so," Arthur said, an eyebrow raised. "It couldn't pull her through."

"Rose brought a dying Dalek back to life by simply touching it. She also absorbed the heart of the TARDIS." He told him sternly. "Oh, and she has void particles all over her. That'll be why she managed to jump it across the universes." He looked back down to her. "No-one tells me my friends aren't special enough."

"Fine, whatever you say." Arthur conceded.

"Correct!" The Doctor grinned for a minute, before let his face become solemn again. "Time to get back to work." He said, reaching for the nearest lever.

And would have pulled it too, had a sharp charge not been emitted through the console, zapping the Doctor's hand back.

"OW!"


	24. Chapter 24

For all Torchwood fans out there.  
_

* * *

Tosh turned on her latest creation in the Torchwood hub with pride, and the five people around her hummed in admiration._

"_Impressive." Ianto muttered._

"_Yeah, Tosh, that's really good." Rose said affectionately._

_John and Gwen smiled as they watched the screen, while Owen looked round the team, gruff confusion on his face._

"_Okay, I give up, what is it?" He asked grumpily, earning a combination of sighs and eye rolling from the group. Gwen, Rose and John wandered off to various parts of the hub as Tosh explained._

"_It monitors the whole of Cardiff for anything extra terrestrial, non twenty first century, or anything unusual, and if it spots anything it will flash up, warning us immediately, with a danger rating."_

"_Right..." He nodded, still not getting it. Tosh watched bemused until he gave in again. "How is that different to what we have already?"_

"_It's better." She explained simply, and Owen scowled, then shrugged. _

"_Whatever you say, darling." He conceded, and leant in to give her a quick kiss before getting back to work. Tosh smiled dreamily, the excitement of their long awaited romance still giving her butterflies in her stomach._

_Ianto ignored the couple, instead staring at the screen, or more specifically, a yellow flashing light. "Tosh, what's that?"_

_She looked at the screen, spotting it immediately, and zoomed in. "Low level alert, not dangerous, but fluctuating a lot. Looks like it's in the not-twenty-first-century category."_

"_Worth checking out?" He asked._

"_Why not, it's a slow day." She commented._

_Ianto turned round and walked to the railings. "Rose, John, you're up." They came up the stairs and he instructed them on the situation. They left the hub on the paving slab, wrapped in a tight embrace, lips locked._

"_I have to stop working with couples." He muttered to himself._

_Rose watched the device in her hand as it lead her through the museum, John beside her the whole way. It lead them up to the second floor, to the World War Two exhibit, and to a cabinet on the far wall, displaying the different types of uniforms that soldiers would wear, specifically a General, in this case. _

_A security guard stood nearby, keeping a watchful eye on them, suspicious of their determined behaviour. Rose walked straight up to him, and pulled out her Torchwood ID._

"_Torchwood. We're going to need you to close this floor for a bit. Not too long, half an hour, probably." She instructed him, and he walked off reluctantly. _

_Rose turned back to John and grinned. He grinned in return, a smile ear to ear, lighting up his eyes._

"_You look happy." He told her affectionately, and pulled her close to him._

"_I _am_ happy." She told him, and she was. She had the best of both worlds; working at Torchwood allowed her to keep the thrill of exploring parts of the universe, and she had the man she loved by her side. Sure, she missed travelling sometimes, stepping onto a new planet, seeing a different set of stars above her head, but she wouldn't trade it for the life she had now. Not when the man she loved loved her back, and wasn't afraid to show it._

_As if to prove this point, he leant in to kiss her again, his lips soft and loving against hers._

_The Security guard was back, and cleared his throat disapprovingly. They peeled themselves apart._

"_We've emptied it." He told them._

"_Thanks." Rose smiled, all charm, and waited for the man to leave. She pulled out her keys, and picked out one of the key-rings, a short silver gadget, with a rounded blue end._

_With a little help from John, it reached the right setting, and she pointed it at the case, which opened with a click._

_They hadn't noticed a man had stayed inside, hidden out of sight from the security guards. He watched as they opened the case, and Rose as she scanned with her device until she decided on a faded green pack from the cabinet, which rolled out seemingly in response to the scan, landing on the floor._

_Rose knelt down to pick it up._

"_Rose..." John warned, but she picked it up anyway._

"_Look," She said, turning it over in her hands, the cover flapping open from the movement. "It's f-"_

_She was interrupted by being whipped out of existence in the blink of an eye, and the pack dropping from the air, and rolling towards the man in the brown suit. John noticed him now._

"_Don't touch it!" He called, but the man's curiosity took over, and nudged it with his foot. He too vanished from the room._

_John wasn't usually a swearing man, but right then he said a particularly nasty word. Being in Torchwood tends to give you some bad habits._

_He took out his phone and called the hub._

"_John, what's going on? The screen flashed a second ago, what happened?" Tosh asked._

"_It was some sort of transportation device, Rose vanished when she picked it up, and so did someone else."_

"_Who?"_

"_I don't know, the room was meant to be evacuated." He looked at the pack, walking closer. "I'm going to try picking it up." He warned Tosh._

"_John, don't."_

_He ignored her, strode confidently over and picked it up. He swore again._

"_What?" Tosh asked._

"_It must be burnt out."_

_

* * *

_

Yes, this chapter is a little indulgent, but I couldn't resist. I so wanted Tosh and Owen to be together, and alive, and Ianto.

Now, you lot, please tell me you know who John is. Because two out of three of my friends, yes **two**, couldn't work it out. They got there eventually_, _after some prompting._  
_


	25. Chapter 25

"OW!" The Doctor yelped in pain, as the TARDIS sent a sharp shock through the panel. "What did you do that for?"

Rose and Arthur watched in mild concern, and partial amusement, as the Doctor attempted to touch the lever again, only to have his hand shocked again.

"What's going on?" Rose asked, and placed a hand on the console. She received a mild static shock for her efforts, less painful than the Doctor was receiving, almost as if she was being warned to stay out of the situation.

"Now, stop it." The Doctor scolded the machine like an ineffectual parent. "We have a job to do, we don't have time for this." He folded his arms across his chest.

"_I'm a time machine." _He heard her scoff within his head, the psychic link between them extending to a brief conversation, as it was prone to on occasion. _"I have all the time in the universe. I can get you back for five minutes ago."_

He scowled at that, disliking having the authority swept from under his feet. "Alright, what do you want?"

A quick montage of images played in his head, pulling his face from the frown to a sombre expression, his eyes losing their warmth as each picture played.

_Amy crying over Rory's dying body,_

_Amy crying in the TARDIS as the Doctor tried to make her remember what was happening,_

_Amy forgetting,_

_Amy crying,_

_Amy crying,_

_Amy crying,_

_Amy with the ring,_

_Amy crying,_

_Amy experimenting with the gadgets,_

_Amy crying,_

_Amy sitting in her room, looking at photographs,_

_Amy crying,_

_The Doctor kissing her forehead,_

_Amy in pain,_

_Amy leaves the console room,_

_Amy walks down the corridor,_

_Amy sits on her bed,_

_Amy crying,_

"Amy..." He whispered, his own eyes glistening with moisture at the images. "I'll be back in a bit." He said aloud to the others, and left the room without looking at them.

He found the room quickly, just down the hall from Rose's. He hadn't been in here in a while, purposefully distancing himself from her recently, started when he found out that Amy was engaged, and then the guilt of Rory's departure had put a certain strain on their relationship.

It was this moment again, he realised, the make or break moment. There was one with every companion who travelled with him. There would be a point that something would freak them out, and they'd consider going home. With Donna it was the slave Ood. Rose even had two, the psychic nature of the TARDIS and his regeneration. With Amy it was going to apparently be being shot in the leg.

The door was open, and he stood in the doorway for a few seconds, just looking at her as she sat on the bed, back to the door, looking down at her lap. He eventually forced himself to move, walking silently through the room, and sat down on the bed beside Amy, facing the doorway instead of her.

"Hello." He said awkwardly.

"Hi." She replied, her voice catching in her throat as she realised she was crying again. She wiped away a tear.

"I'm sorry about your leg." He told her, glancing briefly at her, before back to the door, unsure of himself. He didn't seem to be much good at emotional situations in this body, although, had he ever been? It seemed to be something he shied away from.

"It's okay." She told him. "Nothing compared with almost being turned into a vampire-fish thing."

"Yeah." He laughed, then felt guilty again, realising how much danger he constantly puts her in. It wasn't fair. "I'm sorry." He repeated.

They sat in awkward silence for a few more seconds, until Amy changed the subject abruptly, as was her habit.

"Doctor, why did I tell Rose I was engaged?"

He stiffened for a second, not knowing how to act, how to react. Usually his brain was fast enough in stressful situations to come up with quick answers, but apparently _this _sort of stress was different.

"Did you?" He asked, his faux nonchalance wildly transparent.

"Yes," She replied, and pulled the ring box out of her pocket, handing it to him. "Who's is this?"

He looked down at it, but didn't accept it. "Yours." He said, his voice choking up to his annoyance.

"Oh, really?" She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She couldn't work out why she was suddenly getting angry, but she was running with it. "Yeah, I worked that bit out on my own."

"Oh." He said, useless, trying desperately to work out how to handle the situation, his big brain coming up a blank.

"Who gave it to me?" She turned on the bed to face the Doctor, hitching her leg up and ignoring the dull throb of pain that accompanied it.

The Doctor sat silently for a few seconds as his brain finally kicked into action. He turned round to look at her.

"Amy, _you_ need to remember it. I can't just give you the answers, I need to let you get there on your own."

"Is this him?" She asked, pulling out the mysterious photo from earlier and giving it to him.

"Okay, you got quite far on your own." He admitted.

"Doctor, I can't put up with this anymore!" She cried, eyes damp with moisture. "I can't stand it! I keep feeling depressed, or start crying, and not notice until someone else points it out!"

"You're crying now." He told her, and instantly regretted his words. Her face tightened and she stood up.

"That's because I'm angry!" She yelled, pacing a bit as she tried to control her emotions.

"Oh." He said again, trying to think. He spun round on the bed, his back now to the door as hers had been, and he looked up at the gorgeous Scottish woman. "Amy, where did you learn how to diagnose shock?"

She stopped pacing and looked down at his in surprise. "I..." She trailed off, trying to remember, pushing the boundaries of her memory, like trying to remember a dream.

"Come on Amy, you did it like an expert, someone must have taught you!"

"I can't..." She started, confusion clouding her features. "Does it matter?"

"Yes, Amy, it matters! Who taught you?" He demanded, and felt his heart melt a bit as more tears left her eyes.

This was it, the point of no return. He usually loved this bit, the excitement before the jump, the bit before everything changed, but this time he didn't. He got the feeling it was going to change for the worse, and the idea that Amy might leave him wrenched at his soul.

"Okay, next question." He announced. "Who came with us to Venice?"

She reacted the same way, disjointed sentences leaving her mouth as her brain worked overtime.

"Amy," He asked, careful not to let his imagination play a part in the next question. "Who was your first kiss?"

"Jeff." She told him quickly, and he blinked in surprise.

"Oh. Really?" He asked, and she nodded. "When did that happen?"

"When I was thirteen, out in the school playground." She told him.

"And how did Rory feel about that?" He asked slyly, no change in his tone.

"He was always jealous of that." She told him. She suddenly clapped a hand to her mouth and her eyes opened wide. "What?"

"Good, Amy." He told her in the condescending tone of a school teacher. "And who's Rory?"

"I don't know." She said, her teeth clenched in frustration.

"Right." He said, thinking up a new question. "What was tomorrow morning?"

"I..." She started, but her expression changed, her eyebrows drawing together as something seeped into the corners of her memory. A fancy white dress. "A wedding?"

"Yes. Who's?"

"Mine?" She looked at him for confirmation, and he nodded.

"Yes, obviously, but who else?" He demanded. He watched as realisation dawned on her features and she sharply inhaled.

"Rory..." She murmured. "Rory Williams from Leadworth, my boyfriend." She recited, and her brain began to work on auto pilot, flooding her mind with memories, so many memories, from years in her past to just a few weeks ago. She fell back onto the bed, and the Doctor reached out to her, to steady her, to comfort her, whatever she needed.

She grasped his hand and turned to him, tears falling from her eyes. She shuffled closer to him, and he took her in a hug, her forhead pressed into his shoulder, and he held her as she went through her ordeal.

He wasn't quite prepared for what happened next, though. In her vulnerable state, like most people do, she reached out for comfort, but she did it in that certain way that is likely to cause trouble, much like back in her bedroom after the adventure with the weeping angels.

She shifted her head up, her forehead brushing the tip of his nose briefly, until she held her head level to his, and leant in. Passionately, powerfully, forcefully she kissed him, bringing her hands up to grip his hair. She leant in further, tipping him backwards.

A Time Lords brain is capable of holding many trains of thought at once.

_This is bad. Very bad._

_She's just remembered her dead fiancé. This is a bit weird._

_Need to get back to work, big things are happening outside._

_I'm kissing Amy Pond!_

The latter thought was dominant for a second too long, and he revelled in the kiss, allowing his hearts to entertain the idea that there was happiness to be had.

But the other thoughts quickly snapped in. He placed his hands onto her shoulders, pushing her backwards, not all that gently. She made little resistance, and he was able to wriggle out from under her, this whole action taking less than two seconds.

Then he jumped off the bed and ran to the doorway, maintaining a distance between them.

"Amy, you have _got _to stop doing that!" He told her, his body working to stop himself from getting physically excited, while his brain worked equally hard to not to pay attention to all the beautiful little aspects of Amy that he had in his reach just a few seconds before. "There are many, many reasons why you need to stop doing that!"

He changed the subject. "If you don't want to come back to the base with us, that's fine, you've just been shot in the leg." '_And suffered some severe emotional turmoil'._ He added silently, before leaving the room and heading back to the console room.

Rose and Arthur were chatting amiably when he walked in, and he strode straight up to the lever he had been meaning to slide earlier. After a second of cowardly hesitation, he placed his hand on it, and after receiving no shock for his efforts, slid it down, and began to work his way round the console, navigating it through the time vortex, back to the secret base.


	26. Chapter 26

The Doctor felt a jolt quiver through the TARDIS as he tried to park the TARDIS back in the base. He quickly checked the scanners.

"Ah." He said. "He's shut off the trans-dimensional drive. We can't park where we were."

"What do we do now then?" Rose asked, a mixture of curiosity and concern about the Doctor's altered mood since he came back from Amy's room. He was back in serious mode again, almost tinges of anger in his movements, or maybe frustration. He seemed to be taking it out on the TARDIS.

"Not to worry," He promised, quickly pressing the blue stabilisers, or boringers, on the panel. "He doesn't know we have a big fancy time machine." A hint of excitement coloured his voice, despite what had happened a few minutes before. An adventure never failed to excite him.

He steered the TARDIS through the vortex, landing silently. "We've landed at the same second we took off." He told them. "In fact, if you listen carefully, you can hear it."

They all stood silently, trying to catch the sound of the machine, but the Doctor grabbed Arthur's pack and quickly began walking towards the door. "Of course, we are soundproofed." He continued, and opened the door, just in time to catch the tail end of the last wheeze. "Out we go."

Amy entered the console room, limping slightly, as The Doctor held the door open for Rose and Arthur to leave. She walked over and looked at her friend straight in the eye.

"I'm coming too." She told him defiantly.

"Always knew you would." He countered. They held each other's gaze for a few seconds, before Amy left the machine, followed quickly by the Doctor, who shut the door behind him, before looking to see where they had landed. "Perfect." He said.

They had landed a few feet away from the large metal door, which lay slightly ajar.

"Not perfect." Rose muttered, remembering what was inside.

"Arthur," The Doctor called. "I need you to wait for Scotson and get that gun off of him. And bring him in here." He said as he strode towards the door. "And don't do anything stupid, like shooting him. I know what naughty video games can do to your judgements."

Arthur retreated, waiting at just past the junction in the corridor, as Rose, the Doctor and Amy entered the room. The lights were still on, and the deformed man was still visible, pacing in his cell.

"What do you think he did?" Amy whispered and looked to the Doctor.

"What makes you think he did anything?" He asked.

"Well, he's a prisoner, isn't he?" She guessed. "And the General's punishing him in some disgusting way."

"Oh, he's a prisoner." The Doctor replied. "But I think he's more of a science experiment than a criminal." He placed a palm on the window and looked at the man. "I'm so sorry."

"Can he hear us?" Rose asked.

"I don't know," The Doctor presumed. "But he heard Scotson earlier."

"How do you know?" She asked as the man sat down on the floor, shuddering with every movement.

"He only started howling when he spoke."

Amy wasn't paying attention to the conversation, and had sat down to relieve the pressure on her leg. After a few seconds she gave into her morbid curiosity, and pulled the ring out of her pocket again, staring at it. She felt tears begin to leave her eyes, and was shocked by the sense of relief, relief at being able to feel the sadness that had been repressed for weeks. She kept quiet, though; understanding now was not the time to cause a scene.

The Doctor turned away from the man, back to the complicated looking control panel behind him. Giving it the close scrutiny he hadn't had time for earlier, he quickly noticed a thin drawer built in, designed so it blended well into the metal casing. He caressed the compartment with his fingers, and after finding no obvious way in, he quickly pulled out his sonic screwdriver, opening it in the usual fashion, and it popped out with a hollow _thunk_.

Nothing was in it but a small book, a diary. The Doctor, never one for respecting people's privacy, grabbed it and rifled through the pages quickly, reaching the end of the book in seconds.

"Ah." He said, worry entering his eyes, and Rose turned round to look.

"What?"

"Worse than I thought." He said, more to himself than anyone else.

"How?" She demanded. Amy looked up as well now, placing the ring on a surface nearby.

"He's a weapon," He explained, each word followed by a small pause, as he digested the information.

"How is he a weapon?" Rose questioned sceptically, walking over to look at the diary. The Doctor shut it with a snap, seemingly oblivious to Rose's intentions, and a look of worry crossed over his face.

"Scotson is experimenting on him," He explained. "making him into the ultimate soldier, stronger than anything else and will kill anything he finds in his path."

"He's a weapon." Rose surmised, and the Doctor nodded, his eyebrows creasing.

"But an unfinished weapon. He's not done yet." He explained, anger infusing itself in his tone, his voice breathy. "Something about the mindset of a killer, but not yet the body." He recited, scolding himself for skim reading again.

"But still a weapon." Rose finished, receiving a worried nod from the Doctor.

"Yes."

They all turned to look at the man behind the glass, none of them knowing quite what to do, until their attention was diverted to a noise in the hallway.  


* * *

All quiet on the review front from the last chapter... that makes me nervous.


	27. Chapter 27

There was a loud scuffle from the hallway, with masculine grunting intermingled. The Doctor quickly left the room to involve himself, but quickly reversed as Arthur frog marched Scotson into the room, the gun from earlier placed on his temple, and his arm curved round his neck, holding him submissive.

"Ah." Said the Doctor, surveying the scene and clearly not liking what he saw. "Thank you, Arthur." He said, carefully plucking the gun away, and passing it back to Rose for safekeeping. She examined it with distaste for a second, before dropping her arm, the gun hanging loosely from her fingers.

The Doctor motioned for him to be let go, and after a slight hesitation, and a silent questioning look, Arthur dropped his arm, stepping back, but still in grabbing distance.

"Sorry." The Doctor said bashfully to the General, and the uniformed man stood to attention, ignoring the Doctor's kindness.

"You are commandeering my base." Scotson stated, his anger locked away behind a poker face, not quite as brave without his gun.

"Nope." The Doctor said. "I'm shutting it down." He looked to the man behind the glass with sadness in his eyes, and anger as he looked back again.

"You don't want Britain to win the war?" The General asked, patriotic fury colouring his tone.

"Oh of course I do," He cried. "It's a very important point in time, set in stone, it always is going to happen!" His hands waved in the air as he yelled. "But this is not how it is going to happen!"

"How do you know, Doctor?" The General demanded. "Up in the trenches we are at a complete stalemate with the Germans, we need something else up there, something new."

"No, you don't." The Doctor assured him.

Amy pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling queasy. She wondered if it was a physical side effect of the bandage, or something psychological. Rose noticed Amy's discomfort and quickly went to her.

"Are you alright?" She whispered, and Amy nodded stubbornly. Rose didn't believe her for a second. "Come on, let's go outside." She didn't much like the room at that moment, and felt slightly relieved to be leaving the toxic atmosphere. That didn't mean a significantly large portion of her wasn't gagging for action though, she noticed. She gave a slight wave to the Doctor, and gestured to the hallway as she helped Amy up. He nodded, acknowledging their actions, and kept his expression the same, ignoring his internal desire to be the one helping Amy right now.

'_That's right, keep ignoring it._' Teased the voices in his head, that up until quite recently held a more useful role than to torment the Doctor. _'That'll make those pesky little feelings go away.'_

Amy and Rose quickly left the doorway, and Amy slid down on to the floor, resting her back on the cool metal walls. She massaged her leg with one hand, and they both listened to the argument continuing in the room.

"You are young, Doctor." Scotson was saying, changing tacks. "What do you know of war?" He said calmly, his voice patronising like an adult teaching a child.

He stopped short when The Doctor looked at him with cold eyes, his mouth a grim line, and any traces of excitement or happiness had left his features completely. Scotson felt his heart grow cold, fear clawing around it as he took in the young man's expression.

"Oh, Scotson," The Doctor said with a sigh, sadness in his tone, and his attitude subtly more patronising than Scotson's. "I know more than you do about war. I've seen things that your worst nightmares couldn't live up to." He looked round to the man behind the glass. "But if you think that makes this alright, you are so wrong."

"Spare me your morals, Doctor," The General said. "This man left his behind when he tried to run."

The Doctor was even more unimpressed. "And because of that you think he deserves this fate?" He cried, flapping his hands in the air in anger. He stood close to the window, watching the man behind the glass.

Amy slid her hand in her pocket, once again reaching for the ring that she had become fascinated with, but felt her stomach lurch as her hand clasped upon nothing but the inside of her pocket. She frantically searched all her pocket , and quickly came to the conclusion that she had left it back in the room. Rose looked concerned.

"I'll be back in a second." Amy whispered and stood up again, testing the weight on her leg. She noticed it was hurting less than a few minutes before, meaning the bandage was doing its job.

She quietly crept back into the room, unnoticed by all except Arthur. She walked over to where the ring was sitting on the surface where she had left it, feeling a _clunk_ of relief as her hand reached for it.

The Doctor stopped paying attention to Scotson, ultimately deciding the man was not worth his time anymore. He stared at the man behind the glass, weighing up his options.

'_Can't leave him there. Obviously.'_

'_Well yes, obviously.'_

'_What to do then?'_

'_Come on brain, think!'_

'_Think, brain, think!'_

'_Ooooo.'_

'_Oh?'_

'_How about that?'_

'_Bit risky...'_

'_When are my plans not risky?'_

'_Yes, point taken.'_

'_Plus, if you're right, and you usually are, it's not very risky at all.'_

'_If you can get Scotson to shut up for a minute.'_

'_Yes, there is that.'_

'_So we're doing that?'_

'_Yeah... We'll do that.'_

All of this internal dialogue took place in less than a second, like the Doctor's plans usually did. Scotson was saying something, but he hadn't listened, and decided there would be no point in starting to pay attention now. He waited for him to stop speaking, and casually pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, waving it slightly in the General's face.

"Do you know what this is, General?" He asked, slight smugness in his tone despite the situation. Amy, who was about to go back in the corridor, stopped and watched the Doctor, recognising the tone, and even Rose and Arthur knew that The Doctor was about to do something interesting. The General glared at the gadget with curiosity, reaching out a hand to take it, but the Doctor pulled back, out of reach. "This is my screwdriver, my very special sonic screwdriver. It can do all sorts of things; open doors, repair pretty much anything, any odd job you want it to do." With his spare hand he twisted it, finding the right frequency, and opened it. "And it's pretty good at breaking glass too."

He pointed it upwards, to where the glass wall and the ceiling met, and pressed down hard on the button. They all watched as the glass began to crack, splitting and splintering down. The man behind the glass watched in fascination, and stepped backwards, hunching back to the wall.

After a few seconds, The Generals instincts kicked in, simultaneously grabbing the Doctor by the bow tie and Arthur by the collar, and forcibly threw them from the room, ignoring their protests. He hurriedly pressed down on a button with a key in it, twisted it and removed the key before leaving the room also, and slammed the door behind him, shoving past Arthur who was trying to get back in the room.

"That's not a good idea, Waldorf." He told him gruffly, turning to the Doctor in anger. "Do you understand that you almost killed us all there?"

The Doctor ignored him, and looked to Waldorf, who was uselessly trying to get back in the room, pawing the door.

"Doctor!" Rose called out, and he twisted round to look at her. "Amy's in there!"

* * *

I officially hate this chapter. There's is nothing wrong with it, Percy, but it took me so long to write it, I was having huge writers block with it. I knew what I wanted to happen, but I didn't know how to make it in a way that the Doctor would actually act. And even when I worked it out the words just weren't arriving.

Oh well, that chapter is behind me, thank goodness.


	28. Chapter 28

"Doctor!" Rose called out, and he twisted round to look at her. "Amy's in there!"

All four people in the hallway quickly became silent, processing the information. Rose, Arthur and Scotson watched the Doctor as he stiffened, looking at Rose but not quite seeing her, as his mind took an unusually slow time to comprehend the information just given to him. His jaw tightened, his eyes widened slightly, and his fists clenched, his body preparing for fight or flight.

He was going to fight.

He spun round, retreating back to the door, and pressed the sonic screwdriver to where the lock was. He held it for a few seconds, twisting it, running it up and down the seam of the door, waiting for a clicking sound that didn't arrive.

"Why isn't it opening?" He asked Waldorf, his voice calm and level, though everyone could sense the anger that lay just beneath the surface.

"I dead-locked it when we left." He explained, also not showing any emotion, though what lay beneath the surface wasn't anger, like the Doctor, but fear of the Doctor's anger.

"With Amy in it?" The Doctor demanded, a little bit of anger seeping out as he kept working on the door. He calmed himself down when he noticed his shaking hand.

"I didn't know she was in there, neither did you." The General defended himself. The Doctor scoffed in frustration, and after a few more seconds of trying to open the door, smacked his forehead with his hand.

"There has to be something," The Doctor cried, "There is always something!"

Rose had been watching the Doctor anxiously, trying to work out if she should do something, or shy away from him while he was in this state. She recognised that she had experienced this feeling before, but with no memory of any such time, all she had to go on was instinct. And instinct told her there was always something.

She swivelled her head, looking round the slightly crowded corridor, looking for anything that could be of use. Then she saw it. On the wall beside the door, on the hinged side, was a small rectangle indentation in the wall. She walked quietly up to it, careful not to disturb the Doctor, and examined it. On the left side were two small hinges and she came to the conclusion that something lay behind it. She tried clawing the right hand side with her finger nails to open it, but quickly realised she was unsuccessful.

"Doctor?" Rose called over her shoulder, seeing him still uselessly waving the sonic around.

"Busy." He muttered back, his face stony and his eyebrows furrowed as he worked in vain.

Rose looked in the other direction, looking at the other two men. Arthur looked worried, as best she could see, as he had he back towards her, and his hand up to his face. The General was watching them with curiosity, and as he saw what Rose was looking at his face lit up slightly in realisation.

"Of course." He whispered. "I didn't think of it, I've never used it."

"Well, what is it?" Rose demanded.

"Intercom, but I don't know how to use it." He explained, taking a step closer, but still maintaining a distance between him and the Doctor, who was now looking back to them.

Rose stopped trying to prise it open, taking a closer look. She noticed something more than hinges along the right hand side, and experimentally pushed the panel in. It gave way obediently, retracting an inch, hinges and all, before popping back out, and the small door flipping open. Behind it lay a meshed metal surface, a speaker, and a small red button. "Looks pretty simple." She muttered.

The Doctor stopped working on the door with the sonic and dashed over to join them. Without hesitation he pressed down hard on the red button and leant in to the speaker.

"Amy, you in there?" He asked urgently. There was no reply for a few very long seconds, and all any of them could hear was a low humming buzz coming from the speaker, and their mingling breaths and heartbeats as they waited. As the wait had almost become too much, the speaker clicked, and after an initial rush of static, Amy finally spoke.

"Yeah, I'm here." She said, her voice low and even. The Doctor sighed and held the sonic to his face, ignoring the mixture of feelings: disappointment, as he had hoped that they had been mistaken, that she wasn't really in there, and relief that she was still okay. And, as always, that strange buzz he felt in the pit of his stomach every time she spoke.

And of course the overriding worry that he felt pretty much any time she was in any sort of danger.

"What's happening in there?" He asked, before being promptly answered by a smashing sound.

"He's breaking the glass." She said, somewhat unnecessarily, her voice the same as before. He could picture her now, her stiff posture and her squared shoulders, like an animal in danger she would reduce her movement in times of danger. "Can you let me out?"

The Doctor didn't reply for a few seconds, weighing his response. "Amy, we're having a bit of trouble with the door..."

"Great!" She replied, her voice rising a bit, and he heard her inhale, keeping her voice steady. "What do I do, then?"

The Doctor didn't reply, and the three people with him watched the struggle in his face. He let go of the button, turning to Scotson.

"You know the room best. What's in there?" He asked, and the General shook his head slightly as he tried to think.

"You said the mind of a killer, not the body, right?" Amy was saying. "So I could take him."

They heard glass smashing again.

"I've been in fights before, I can handle it." She was saying, trying to reassure everyone, and while everyone knew she was strong, they still doubted she could take on that man.

"Amy," The Doctor sighed down the intercom. "Right now he's scared, and probably in a minute he's going to smash though that glass." As if to punctuate this, he heard the noise again. "But don't fight him, he'll just fight back, and I'm sorry, but he's stronger than you."

"Doctor," Amy began, but he interrupted her.

"Amy, do you trust me?" He asked her.

The sound of glass smashing rung out once more, but slightly different. It sounded more hollow, finite, and the sound of another person's laboured breathing could be heard.

"Yes." She whispered after a few seconds, barely audible.

They all waited, unknowingly holding their breath, waiting for anything. Suddenly the General, who had been thinking during this, trying to remember what he had missed, clicked into action. He stepped forward, brushing the Doctor back, and pressed down on the button, speaking into the device.

"Amy, there are tranquilisers in the cabinet." He told her, and waited for her reply. For a few seconds there was only breathing to be heard, until a low snarling began.

"General, shut up." Said the Doctor rudely, staying glued in the position he was in. Scotson ignored him.

"Amy?" He asked into the speaker.

She didn't reply. Instead, the snarling got louder, quickly transforming into a roaring, before being cut short with a sickening crackling noise, and then silence.

* * *

Straying away from Doctor Who for a post, did anyone watch Stick Aid?


	29. Chapter 29

Amy watched as the Doctor held up the sonic screwdriver and clicked down the button. She watched the white lines begin to crack through the glass, beginning at the ceiling and creeping their way down, making hollow splintering sounds as they went. So transfixed, was she, that she failed to notice, until too late, the General forcibly evicting the Doctor, Arthur, and lastly himself from the room. No-one heard her cry of "Oy!" as the door slammed shut, leaving her alone in the room with the 'in-progress' killing machine and nothing but glass between them.

Glass that was now _very _cracked, meaning very vulnerable.

She limped to the door as fast as she could, and stared at it. She pressed down on the button that she thought she had seen Scotson pressing just before he left, but received no response. The door stayed in place, as impenetrable as it had been from the outside. She felt around the door, searching for anything that might open it, felt each metal panel, testing it by pushing and clawing at the seams. Nothing worked.

"Right," She said to herself, looking the door up and down before turning to look at the cracked glass and what lay behind it. "That's not too good."

The man was staring at the glass with suspicion, as far as Amy could make out anyway, not quite trusting the hand that fate had dealt him. Amy held her breath, watching as he deliberated, until finally curiosity got the better of him, and he moved closer to the glass. First he placed his hand on it, then leant it, pushing his face up to the crack. Amy realised he was trying to look through, and silently shuffled to the right, closer to the glass, but hopefully out of sight from his vantage point.

This continued for a few more seconds, until the soft sound of radio static started to emit from near the door. About half a second later, she heard the Doctors voice.

The man stiffened when he heard the noise, before reaching up his hand, making a fist, and bringing it down hard on the glass. It splinted further, and a few shards dropped to the floor on her side making gaps.

"Amy, you in there?" She heard him ask, worry in his tone, though she could tell he was trying to cover it up. Trying not to worry her. She edged back to the door, keeping an eye on the man, who was now studying the effect he had on the glass. She followed the sound of static somewhat reluctantly until she pinpointed it to a panel on the wall to the left of the door. Looking closer at it, she noticed a strange hinging mechanism on it, and after trying to open it by prising it logically, she pressed it in hesitantly, and followed through when she felt it give way under her touch. When she let go, the panel popped back out, and the metal plate flipped open, revealing a speaker and a red button. The static was louder now, buzzing from the meshed speaker. She pressed down on the button.

"Yeah, I'm here." She said, keeping her voice low and even as she tended to do in tense situations like this. She saw the man raise his fist again.

"What's happening in there?" He asked, as the man brought down his fist again, punching the glass, and a few larger sharp pieces of glass fell to the ground.

"He's breaking the glass." She told him, somewhat unnecessarily as she was fairly certain he would have heard it anyway. She kept an eye on him as he tried looked through, the small holes he had made a little bit too high. "Can you let me out?"

The Doctor didn't reply for a few seconds, and she felt her heart sink. He couldn't. "Amy, we're having a bit of trouble with the door..."

"Great!" She cried, a little too loudly, and the man definitely heard her. She breathed in, steadying herself, before replying. "What do I do, then?"

For a short amount of time there was only radio static, and then it clicked off, leaving her ears stunned by the silence. She looked away from the man for a second, her eyes wide with panic as she looked to the speaker, the Doctor. A few more seconds passed, and she looked back to the man, remembering what the Doctor had read aloud.

"You said the mind of a killer, not the body, right?" She recited as she saw the man lift a fist again. "So I could take him." He punched the glass again, not making gaps level with his eyes. "I've been in fights before, I can handle it."

She said this with determination and certainty in her voice, though as she watched the effect of the man's strength on the glass, she knew this probably wasn't the case.

"Amy," The Doctor sighed down the intercom. "Right now he's scared, and probably in a minute he's going to smash though that glass." As if to punctuate this, the man punched again, creating a larger hole, and she saw him looking directly at her through the gaps. "But don't fight him, he'll just fight back, and I'm sorry, but he's stronger than you."

"Doctor," Amy began, but he interrupted her.

"Amy, do you trust me?" He asked her.

The man stepped back, and Amy tensed up, not knowing but waiting to see what would happen next.

She watched the man brace himself, squaring his shoulders, and without hesitation rammed himself into the glass, smashing it wide, propelling himself out into the room. He stared at her, and she, to her shame, stared wide-eyed back at him, and cringed back against the wall. For a few seconds she didn't speak, but she knew she had to answer the Doctor.

"Yes." She whispered as quietly as she could manage.

She and the man stared at each other, neither knowing what to do. This wasn't how she had pictured this happening. Someone with the psychotic mind of a killer would have charged straight at her, killing her in record time. But he wasn't. He simply stared, and panted from the exertion of smashing the glass.

The static stopped for a split second before turning back on, and a new voice came through the speaker.

"Amy, there are tranquilisers in the cabinet." The General told her. She glanced down at the row of cabinets below the console, which was also blocked by the man, who had begun snarling like an animal. She didn't know what to do. She heard the Doctor murmur something, but couldn't quite hear what.

"Amy?" The General asked, demanding Amy's attention.

Attention that was now diverted by the crazed man charging towards her, snarling like an animal and one gnarled hand moving threateningly fast towards her.


	30. Chapter 30

Scotson was pushed back by the Doctor as he instantly stepped back to the device.

"AMY!" The Doctor yelled through the speaker, spittle leaving his mouth with his words and hit the metal grid. "Amy are you there?" He demanded, holding the button down as if it was the last piece of her that he had.

It took his usually fast brain a few seconds to register the fact that the speaker was not emitting the white noise of radio static that it had been just a minute before. Holding up his sonic screwdriver, he aimed it at the com, listening intently to the feedback.

"Agh!" He exhaled in frustration.

"What?" Rose asked, watching the Doctor with concern.

"It's broken on the other side." He explained as he adjusted the frequency on the screwdriver and tried to sort it out.

"Can you fix it?" Rose waited for a few seconds as he attempted the task, but he quickly turned round at looked at her, fatigue showing clearly in his eyes.

"No." He said, defeated. "The broken bits need to be in physical contact with each other, and then I could do something. If I could tell Amy to hold her side together, then I could do something."

"But the com's broken." Scotson said uselessly, earning himself semi-scornful looks from those around him.

"There's a hole in my bucket." The Doctor joked, but the levity in his words didn't reach his expression or tone.

"So what do we do?" Rose asked, and yet again the Doctor didn't answer, instead staring into space, his thoughts slowing down to a sluggish, useless pace, and each of those thoughts were transforming into one huge thought. _**Amy.**_

"Doctor?" Rose prompted, but the Doctor remained in his frozen state.

"There's nothing we can do." The General called over. "That door will take hours to open, and realistically Amy is probably already..." He trailed off, his professional army General persona cracking, not able to finish his sentence.

"There's always something." She said firmly, conviction in her tone that had arrived from nowhere, but she ran with it. "Right, Doctor?"

He stayed silent.

"Doctor?" She demanded. Fed up with his lack of reaction, she slapped him sharply round the face. He jumped, blinking back into reality, and clapped his palm to his reddening cheek.

"Ow!" He said, shock in his tone, and he looked at her with wide eyes.

"Can't have you falling apart on me." She told him with a grin, happy to see his face animated again.

"You still slap like your mother." He grumbled, rubbing his cheek as he straightened up, and rotating his jaw experimentally. "That really hurt!" He whinged.

"Well then get back to work!" She told him. He grinned, new purpose in his mind as an idea struck him.

"What work?" Scotson questioned, to the Doctor's annoyance. "You can't get in for hours, and she'll be long dead." Finally finishing his sentence.

"Yes, yes, I heard you." The Doctor replied, his tone disdainful, and probably a little too loud. "Realistically, that's what's happened. But who wants to be realistic?"

"In war, realism becomes a necessity." The General announced pompously. The Doctor scoffed.

"Scotson, I would say the opposite. Realistically, most of the people who walk into war aren't going to walk out. Realistically, their families and friends back home won't survive either, they could be killed by bombs overhead at any time." He left the com, and walked right up to the General, standing a little too close, towering over him beyond the few inches height difference. "Realism would kill them all."

The General blinked indignantly, wanting to step away but unwilling to concede to the Doctor.

"Not that you have to worry about family and friends back home, do you?" The Doctor guessed, and judging by the taken aback look on Scotson's face, coupled with a lack of response, he surmised he was right. He pulled Arthur's too large pack out of his too small tweed jacket pocket, baffling them all, and tugged out two small vials of gas. "Which is which?" He asked Arthur.

"The one on the right is context, the left is memory." He told him, straining to see what he was going to do. The Doctor put the context bottle back in the bag, and held up the memory gas to his face for inspection.

"I'm guessing they told you never to shake this?" The Doctor inquired.

"Yeah, they stressed that a lot, the pack is built in with a stabilising system so it stays steady." He explained, watching carefully.

"Right..." The Doctor mused. He looked for a few more seconds before pulling out his sonic screwdriver, adjusted the frequency, aimed it at the vial, and turned it on.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked, worry and confusion in his tone.

"Shaking it." The Doctor said with a grin.

"What happens when you shake it?" Rose asked, watching the Doctor protectively.

"In some cases it can completely and irreversibly wipe a person's memory, in others it can make them really ill, or even kill them." He said, watching as the gas seemed to condensate on the inside of the glass, and drip down the sides, pooling into a pale purple liquid.

After no time at all, about a quarter of the vial was filled with the liquid, and he handed it to the General. "Drink this." He instructed.

"Doctor!" Rose cried indignantly, shocked at his actions.

"What?" He asked, confused, then caught up with her. "Oh, right yes, the warning labels. Don't worry, I just shook it the right way. Promise." He told her, and looked back at Scotson, who was looking at him with disdain.

"I am not drinking that." The General told him as he went to grab it, but the Doctor pulled it back out of reach. He wagged his finger in Scotson's face in a very patronising fashion.

"Yes you are, and I'm going to tell you why." The Doctor began to explain. "Do you remember your family back home, your friends?"

The General stayed silent, his face stony. Rose and Arthur thought at first that he was angry, but quickly realised that there was more to the story.

"No?" The Doctor reiterated softly. He placed the vial in his pocket, and reached out with both hands, his fingers hovering over the General's temples, and the man stepped backwards warily. The Doctor, slightly more forcefully, stepped towards him, and pressed down his fingers, not gentle as he had been with Rose. Not for the man who had hurt Amy.

They both felt the psychic connection as soon as it was made. The Doctor mercifully sped back through the memories as fast as he could, not lingering on anything, though found himself mollified as the vibe of the man became less malicious and more human as he went into his past. War changes people, the Doctor knew this only too well.

He slowed down as he felt himself drawing into the dead end, about a year and a half before. He settled on one memory, of Scotson waking up on the floor of the base, a strange pack in his hand, two broken vials on the floor, and nothing but instinct to guide him. England must win the war, this was the only objective.

The Doctor pushed back further, into the mist that he had found in Rose just a few hours before.

"Do you remember this?" The Doctor asked gently.

"Yes." Scotson murmured, feeling a strange combination of stress and deep relaxation.

"But if I push further, there will be nothing there. You've lost it all." The Doctor left the fog, and sped back to the present. Removing his fingers from the General's temples, he plucked the vial out of his pocket and held it out to the man.

"Everything else is in there." The Doctor said gently, feeling sympathy for the man. He wondered what would have happened to Rose if he hadn't found her, if she had been left to fend for herself in the trenches with no memory.

"How can I trust you?" Scotson asked feebly, his earlier bravado evaporated as he reeled from the experience.

"How can you not?" The Doctor countered. "The worst you'll wake up with is a headache, a head full of memories, but that's a good thing."

For a few seconds the men did nothing but stare at each other, both staying in position, primally staring each other out. Then finally, and reluctantly, Scotson took the vial, slowly uncorking it, and after a slight hesitation drunk it.

Nothing happened for exactly two seconds except from the collective inhaling that occurred. Then the General slumped forward, collapsing onto the Doctor, who managed to remain upright, strong despite his appearance. He positioned the now unconscious man on the floor, sitting upright with his chin lolling onto his chest, before straightening up and turning to Rose and Arthur behind him.

* * *

I feel like I should rename this "Amy's Bad Day'. Sorry if this chapter is a bit long, there didnt seem to be a good cut off point, it could've gone on for longer if I wanted to. Instead, I split it into two chapters. Don't look at me like that. It would've taken longer to write, therefore longer to upload, so you'll get the end of this segment about the same time anyway. Quit frowning at me.

I've been good with uploads recently, but I think from now on it's going to be less regular, I'm currently getting ready to go off to Uni, so it's pretty hectic...

STOP FROWNING AT ME!


	31. Chapter 31

Rose and Arthur looked from the slumbering General back to the Doctor, who remained stationary for a few seconds before storming past them, sonic screwdriver in hand.

"Any questions?" he called over his shoulder, noticing but not acknowledging the confusion on their faces.

Arthur could only manage one word to sum up the list of questions in his mind.

"What?" He asked, the one word a short bark of confusion.

"What 'what'?" The Doctor replied, earning a smirk from Rose, which she hastened to cover up. She knew she should probably be a bit more worried, agitated and confused, like Arthur, but found herself rather enjoying the situation at hand. Parts of it, anyway, not the part that meant that Amy was trapped in a room with a human killing machine.

"Just what?" Arthur reiterated as the Doctor pointed the screwdriver at the door again and began working on getting it open.

"I worked it out earlier, but I got distracted so never told you." He looked over his shoulder towards them. "Sorry."

"Worked out what?" Rose asked, walking up to the door and feeling the cold metal with her palm.

"He's like you." He said, gesturing towards her with a nod. "And you." He nodded back to Arthur.

"How, exactly?" Arthur asked as the Doctor tried another setting on the door, leaving a few seconds for Rose to think, and clever girl that she is, she used her brain to put the pieces together as the Doctor worked.

"Wait, I think I've got it." Rose said, holding up a hand as she thought. "He comes from the future, like you," she said, looking at Arthur, "But got his memory wiped, like me?"

"Well done." He congratulated her approvingly. "Clever old Rose."

"Any time." She said mock-casually, studying her fingernails for a second, before looking back to the door, and gradually examining the walls surrounding it.

"No, wait." Called Arthur, striding up between them. "I still don't get it."

"The new packs were implemented in the last two years, right?" He asked, barely pausing for Arthur to nod in confirmation. "General Scotson over there got one of the old ones, set up camp down here, made himself a little base, and got to work. After about six months, judging by the fact that he said he'd been here a year and a half, he managed to shake up the pack a bit, and got a great big dose of forgetfulness." He explained all this at top speed, and Arthur took a few seconds to catch up.

"Right..." said Arthur as he processed the information. "And why does he think he's a General in the war?"

"Because he believed his own back story," explained the Doctor. "And because he no doubt had the silly notion of _'no messing up the time line'_ drummed into him at whatever fine institute he attended, it got translated into '_England must win the war'_, which then got changed into the ridiculous idea that he had to do something about it."

"Ah." exhaled Arthur as he finally understood. "How did you do that?"

"I'm clever." The Doctor stated without arrogance or exaggeration, just a statement of fact. Arthur looked to Rose for confirmation.

"Don't ask me, it's not like I remember." She reminded him, and went back to searching the walls for anything, before looking back to the Doctor. "How much can that thing do?"

"This?" He asked, pointing to the busy screwdriver. "Lots, tons, just can't open deadlocked doors. I need to fix that."

"Can it cut through metal?" She asked.

"Nope, it's a screwdriver, not a saw." He said in a tone that indicated that she had asked a stupid question.

"Right..." She said. "Can it unscrew the metal plates on the wall?"

The Doctor looked to the wall, noticing the panels, taking in their structures and analysing their bindings.

"Unscrew, yes," he said as he moved closer to the wall. "But where are the screws?"

Rose picked at the edge of a panel with her nails, seeing that the panel was not coming away from the wall at all.

"Ok, it's something else then." She said confidently. "Magnets?" She guessed.

The Doctor reluctantly removed the screwdriver from the door, changed functions, and pointed it at a panel, analysing the feedback in a way that Rose and Arthur couldn't possibly begin to comprehend.

"It's held on by complex algorithms, based on gravity, polar positioning, making the panels stick on by attraction to something behind it."

Rose processed the information quickly. "So, it's held on by magnets?"

The Doctor changed the setting of the screwdriver again, and waved it over the panel, before settling in the centre. A loud _thunk_ came from the panel, echoing through the metal, and the panel fell forward an inch from the wall, before falling off all together, landing at their feet dangerously, had they been standing a little closer.

"Yeah..." The Doctor said. "Magnets."

* * *

_Tra la la la, living my life, watching random things on youtube, periodically checking the Doctor Who website for any news._

_Whats this? An Email? A FanFiction has a new chapter?_

_*clicks link*_

_My goodness, I had forgotten that this story had even existed! It's been so long since a chapter I assumed the author had died!_

I'm sorry, my lovelies, I have had so little time recently. Who knew university could be so time consuming! I had to come home for the weekend to get this written.

LOVE YOU ALL xx


	32. Chapter 32

Amy shrieked as the monsters gnarled hand descended down, seemingly in slow motion but horrifically fast all at once.

This took less than a second.

Some might think she spent this second reminiscing about Rory, the man she'd lost in the worst possible way.

The man she had loved and had been stolen from her.

Others might think she spent this second thinking about The Doctor, so near but yet so far.

Remembering the feel of his embrace, his arms round her shoulders, anchoring her in as they flew off into space.

In actual fact, this second was spent shouting a very rude, very Scottish word, very loudly in her head.

* * *

Yes, I know it's short, I just wanted to put this one in. Don't worry, I'm going to write the next chapter as soon as this one is published. See you in one second!


	33. Chapter 33

Amy's shriek petered out as she felt the gnarled hand brush past her cheek, sending a faint shockwave of air past her, swishing her hair aside. She stopped completely as the hand landed with a crash onto the speaker, breaking through it and tearing the wires inside. She watched, her mouth agape, as the monster prised his hand out of the box, bringing out chunks of metal and complicated, though probably now completely useless, machinery.

"Oy!" She said, almost an exhale of annoyance as she lost her final form of communication from the Doctor. Her face took on the expression of indignation for a second, until the monster turned his gruesome face towards her, peering into her eyes with his angry yellow ones. Her previously fearsome expression (one that had been known on occasion to stop grown men in their tracks) now faltered and her mouth snapped closed. Hesitantly she took a step back, inadvertently cornering herself.

"I mean," She begun, "not 'Oy'," She continued, "more like, 'Hello!'" She took another step back, and felt the cold metal of the wall against her back. The man took a step towards her, and she felt herself beginning to panic as she found herself trapped, her heavy breathing and his agonising wheeze intermingling.

'_Don't fight him,'_ She reminded herself. _'He's stronger than you.' _

'_Yes... But what other choice do I have?"_

He was close enough for Amy to see every feature of his face, the grime on his face, the bubbled texture of his skin, the milky yellow goo in his eye. And she could somehow see a long ancient scar on his nose, sprinkles of brown freckles across his cheeks and flecks of blue in the iris of his eye.

So she took a chance.

"NO!" She yelled out, startling herself with her boldness (though if the Doctor had been there, he wouldn't have been). The man merely blinked at her, a snarl forming on his lips.

She gave him a sharp slap round the face, ignoring the slight squishy feeling under her palm. "I am not dying in here!"

* * *

Do your eyes decieve you? Two chapters in two days?

No, not really, it was caused by a fracture in space and time, the crack's playing up a bit. If you could wait till tomorrow to read it, that'd be great, otherwise there might be some really bad consequences, like your hatstand might get moved around. Trust me, it'll get messy.

You didn't already read this, did you?


	34. Chapter 34

Amy hesitated for a second, replaying her last action in her head. Surely slapping a killing machine round the face wasn't a smart move, especially when warned not to fight it by a fairly reliable source. For the second time in as many minutes, she wondered if this would be the end of Amy Pond; if she was destined to die beneath the trenches of World War Two.

Though if this was to be her fate, it seemed to be at the hands of a very slow killing machine.

She stayed quiet now, watching the 'machine' in front of her as he slowly rotated his jaw and place a palm on it as if to sooth it. She felt a twinge of guilt flick through her as she saw the pained shock in his expression, the downward turn of the eyebrows, the widening of his blue eyes, but found herself more surprised than anything. Right now she was seeing something in him she hadn't seen before, a human being.

The man took a shuddering step back, still rubbing his jaw, and slouched a bit, making his hunched back all the more prominent.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice a quiet rumble, as if something was lodged in his throat, making every breath an effort. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Amy, being the experienced time traveller that she was, managed to keep her cool, determined to not start shrieking at the slightest movement like the fragile damsels in distress she'd seen in the films of her youth. Not a second time, anyway.

"Then stop smashing things up!" She told him indignantly, shifting her weight as she found herself becoming aware of her aching leg again. "And I wasn't scared, you just startled me."

She was aware of the oddity of the situation, talking to a killing machine, someone whose sole intention was probably to kill her and everyone around, but as she looked at him, processing his words and the situation, she found more and more human aspects. Would a psychotic machine really apologise for scaring her?

"I'm sorry," he said again, turning round and holding his head as if it hurt. "I just had to get him to stop talking. I don't want to hear his voice, I can't." The man began to shakily pace round the room, and Amy, unsure of what to do, pressed her weight against the work station to her left, taking the pressure from her leg. "Just thinking about him, I get so... so _angry_! I just have to-"

"So stop thinking about him!" Amy yelped, interrupting him as she saw the muscles in his arms twitching, the gnarled fingers curled round his misshapen head twitching too. While she wasn't understanding the situation whatsoever, she understood that the Man + The General = Bad. She tried to guess what the Doctor would do in this situation, something extremely clever, probably – or maybe just buy time.

"What's your name?" She asked the still pacing Man. She wondered if he had even heard her, as he continued pacing for a few more seconds, not acknowledging her question, but he finally turned his head to her, hesitating for a breath.

"Joseph," He wheezed, "Joseph Rutherford."

"Alright, Joseph." She confirmed, absent-mindedly rubbing the wound on her leg. "I'm Amy."

"I wish we could have met under better circumstances." He said, only half jokingly.

"Yeah, it's not fantastic, is it?" She replied sarcastically. "Not exactly the best day of my life." She muttered, looking back to the speaker to examine the damage again. The wires were torn through. Maybe if she had had the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, and known how to use it, she could have fixed it, but there wasn't any immediate hope of that. She turned back to Joseph, who was watching her, a concerned look on his face.

"You're injured." He stated, gesturing to her leg with one of his oversized hands. "You should be sitting." He looked around for a chair, and seeing the one at the far side of the room, the very one Amy had previously been sitting on, he walked over to it.

"No, I'm fine!" She tried to say, but he ignored her protests. He underestimated his strength as he picked up the chair, snapping the back panels like a twig under a child's foot. He tried again, more carefully this time, and succeeded in picking it up and bringing it over to Amy. After a second of hesitation, she cautiously sat down on it, deciding not to disagree with the man.

Joseph looked somehow sad, and he wrung his hands together in worry. "This is no place for a lady."

"Excuse me," Amy cried out indignantly. "None of that, you're worse off that I am." She paused, realising she'd just broken her decision she'd made just a few seconds earlier, but after finding Joseph took no offense at the statement, she relaxed. "What are you doing here, anyway? What happened?"

"It's not a nice tale." He rumbled. "How did you come to be here?"

"I'm from the government," She told him, picking up the ruse from earlier. "Left my identification outside."

"The Government allow this?" He asked? "They allow this to happen to human beings?"

"No." She told him firmly. "We don't. Which is why we are investigating the General's situation here to see what action needs to be taken." She put on her police-officer persona, the same she had used when she met the Doctor for the second time. "Now, I wanna hear your side of the story." She tried to cross her legs in the way that strong, determined women did in films, but winced at the tugging on the wound. She uncrossed them.

Joseph watched her with caution, evaluating the pro's and con's of telling her his tale, but after deciding he truly had nothing to lose, he eventually begun.

"I got called to fight in the winter of 1942. Like any other man, I was proud of this chance to serve my country. My Father encouraged me to go, and while Minnie, my wife, wasn't as happy, she said I should go. I left them all, and my two children behind, to fight.

"I had been out in the trenches for over 6 months when I got a letter. I did get them, every so often from my family, from little Jack and Karen, to tell me how they were doing, how they were growing up, even a picture every now and again. They were going to the country soon, as evacuees, they were going to be safe. But they didn't get there. On June 26th, only a few days before they were to leave, a bomb hit the house. They were killed.

"They were all I had been fighting for. They were the only reason I had spent months in the mud and constant fear of death. So I ran. I didn't know how to go, I didn't know where. All I knew was I had to leave. There was nothing for me here anymore.

"But I failed. One minute I was up there in the mud, crawling through, trying to escape, and the next I found myself down here. I thought it was a blessing, anywhere was better than up there, but when I explained this to Scotson, he didn't understand. He told me to get back outside, to be a man, to fight for my country. When I refused, we fought, and he won."

Joseph stopped, his muscles tensing and his gnarled fingers clawing in on themselves. His breathing got heavier, and he gritted his teeth. A second later he span round to face the glass, and brought his fists down on it. It fractured under the force of it, and after a second of trying to stay in place, it fell down with a shatter.

* * *

Do you all hate me for waiting so long to update? Or did you forget I existed :(

I'm very very very sorry! I got insanely busy, and the last 3 weeks I've had my first big important essay... When you have that, the last thing you want to do in your breaks is to sit down and write some more. Grrrr.

But I LOVE you all. Even if you hate me.


	35. Chapter 35

This is why he needed his companions. Without Rose it may have taken him hours to work out the incredibly simple magnetic solution. He had a huge, big, old brain, capable of working out vast problems very quickly in his head, but his friends would point him back down to earth. They would nearly always find out the problem.

Not that he would ever admit that.

And there was also the fact that he craved their company. He wouldn't tell anyone if he could help it, but he hated being lonely. Despite the sentience of the TARDIS, and its ability to communicate, the ship only truly became a warm place when there was someone else in there. Even if they were in a different room, way on the other end of the ship, it would be a far happier place.

He glanced over to Rose, and smiled happily. It was good to have her back, no matter if he had to give her away again.

"What?" She said with a wide smile, noticing his gaze. He shrugged his shoulders and continued working.

His last body had forgotten that. He forgot the happiness that he felt when he had friends to care for, and someone to care for him. All he ended up remembering was the heartache when they left, or were dragged away from him.

"_You have NO idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around!"_

Rory's words hit his head like a bludgeon. As brilliant as it was for him to have friends around, there was the inescapable fact that they always ended up getting hurt. Right now, Amy was trapped, wounded in a room with something that could easily kill her, and there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it.

He looked again to Rose. Poor Rose, hurt time and time again; he had left her in another world, deserted her, and now, even though she was back, she was still hurt. A huge chunk of her had been stolen.

Rose caught him looking again, and begun to smile, until she saw the sombre expression on his face.

"What?" She asked gently, taking a step towards him. He shook his head and got back to work, slower this time, lethargic. Rose noticed.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

He tightened his jaw for a second, before releasing a word. "_Amy."_

Rose analysed his body language, the tightness is his eyes, the sadness. "Hey," she said. "She'll be fine. You'll get in there."

His hand dropped, and the screwdriver pointed uselessly at the floor. "But what if I don't? What if I'm wrong?"

He thought of Rory, dying in Amy's arms under the ground, and swallowed up by the crack. Poor, forgotten Rory.

"You'll do it." Rose told him, confidence exuding from her. "Now get back to work."

* * *

See how much I love you? Two chapters in two days.

This chapter probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for a specific youtube video, so, thank you to this for the little spark of inspiration!

.com/watch?v=9tox9x5HJIE&feature=grec_index


	36. Chapter 36

Amy jumped as she watched the glass fall, and the great beast of a man twitched, his fingers clenching and his muscles tensing.

"OY!" She cried out, distracting Joseph from his crazed moment.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, his voice shaking as he tried to calm down, and he lifted his fists to his eyes, covering his face. "Just thinking of him, I get so-"

"Well, don't." She told him simply. She settled back in her chair, looking frustrated and bored, while inside frightened like hell. There wasn't room enough for two out of control people in the small room.

"It's hard." He told her quietly, his voice barely above a rumbling whisper. "Every time I think of him I can barely control myself, I got so angry! And when I see him, I go crazy. I can't control it."

"Then stop thinking about it." She told him confidently, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. She stood up slowly, turning to face the door. "How do we get out?"

Joseph looked at her somewhat incredulously. "I've never even been in this part of the room before, how could I know how it works."

"Well that sort of attitude isn't going to get us out now, is it?" She asked him, absent-mindedly rubbing her leg.

He chuckled softly at her tone, surprising himself, having not laughed for months. "I imagine we would leave through the door."

"Yes..." She said. "But how do we open it?" She tried clawing with her fingernails at the point where the door met the doorframe, but was obviously unsuccessful. "D'ya think you can bang it down?" She suggested.

He eyed up the heavy door, its cool metal surface and sturdy frame. "I could try." He stepped forward, and gestured to Amy to step back, which she did willingly. He raised his arms, and clenched his fists, glaring at the door as he judged its worth. After a few seconds of this he brought down his fists hard onto the unforgiving metal.

The thud of the impact rang through the room; a dull, ringing noise that reverberated through and made Amy wince as it hit her eardrums. She stepped forward to inspect the damage inflicted on the door, and sighed. The door stood as firm as it had before, and not so much as a dent showed on the shiny metal surface.

"Right," she said, her Scottish accent drawing out the word. "That's not going to work." She turned round, shrugged to Joseph, and sat back down, surveying the room. Her eyes scoured the walls, first the small drawer built into the wall that the Doctor had found earlier, memorising how it looked, then onto the rest of the metal panelling, before she found more. Three, to be exact.

She walked over to the far wall where the three drawers were located, and studied them closely, her nose almost touching the cool metal. After a few seconds she gingerly reached out and pressed the metal of the top drawer, like she had with the panels in front of the speakers, until she felt it click in. She jumped back as she released her fingertips, and the slim drawer popped out. She plucked it out fully, the metal fully extending from the wall, and looked inside.

Nothing much in that drawer, just a photo: a dark haired girl was looking sultrily over her shoulder out from the shiny paper, the words _Jazzy B_ scrawled across it. Amy placed the photo back in, and shut the drawer.

She did the same with the middle slot, but it was empty.

The third drawer was different from the others. When Amy pressed in the slot, it instead slid down on a slant, revealing a flat screen which lit up as soon as it had slid out fully.

Amy jumped as she heard a large bang from behind her, and looked towards the noise. She looked just in time to see Joseph punching the door a second time, and then going in for a full shoulder slam. Each time the door remained as intact as before.

"OY!" She called over to him, and he turned around, panting from the exertion. "We tried that already."

"What else is there to do?" He asked her.

_Nothing_, Amy realised. Perhaps the best thing he could do would be to use his strength to at least try to get the door open.

"Carry on then." She told him, and looked back to the screen, ignoring the echoing bangs behind her. The screen had now lit up, the blue light hurting her eyes in contrast to the bleak room around her, but welcome all the same: blue was her favourite colour. The screen was a classic, recognisable menu screen, with six buttons, seemingly in different languages, and only one in which she recognised: the word 'English'. She pressed down on that option, and the screen faded, to be replaced with a menu list. Buried amongst the "_Introduction to your base"_ and _"How to expand"_ was a more relevant looking option: "_Locking the safe room"._

"The safe room can be used for many purposes, blah blah blah..." Amy read out, scrolling down a bit. "To deadlock your safe room from the inside, press the lock button on the left of the door. The button will come with a key, keep hold of this." She looked round to the door, seeing the button, sans key. "We don't have the key."

That was greeted by another hefty thud at the ever unmovable door.

"With the key, the door can be opened at any time from the inside. Not helpful." She said. "If not, the door will open automatically twelve hours after the button has been pushed. To prevent this, press the button again, and the door will stay closed a further twelve hours." She looked around again. "Stay away from that button, alright?"

He started to kick the door.

"The door cannot be opened from outside while deadlocked." She read aloud. "Great."

Joseph stopped kicking.

* * *

I know, I know. I'm awful. I don't update enough. But I promise, it's because I'm busy. I have assignments, and essays, and so many youtube videos that are all shiny and pretty. But I'm getting there.

So. I love you all. I miss you all (distinct lack of reviews recently [SAD FACE]). Christmas holidays coming up very very soon, so that means more time to write. I challenge myself to finish this before the exciting Christmas episode. You must encourage me, yes?


	37. Chapter 37

"Watch out!" The Doctor cried out as he jumped back from the wall that he had been working on. Rose and Arthur followed suit, just in time to avoid their toes from being crushed by the panel dropping. As it now lay flat on the floor, the Doctor used it as a step, giving him an extra few inches to examine the wall behind with; he was, after all, quite short.

The panel had been approximately a meter squared, The Doctor guessed, and quite thick. He saw that on the back of it there were four discoloured circles, which presumably had been magnetically attached to the four metal rods protruding from behind. He tested a rod with a coin from his pocket: it stuck fast, having only demagnetised the front panel.

Now he examined the substance that stood behind, gently tapping it with his finger tip. "Rose, do you know what this is?"

She stepped forward to look. It was beige, and dusty. Caressing it softly with her own finger, she realised quite how much, as the dry spread onto her skin. Pressing a little harder, she felt it give way under the pressure, and as she released it, it crumbled, dropping onto the floor below, leaving behind a cracking dent.

"Is it earth?" She asked, surprised. Not that earth is that surprising, but she had been expecting concrete, at the very least.

"Yup, just dirt." He scraped at it with his fingers, and more dropped onto the floor, leaving a larger, dustier crevice. "Dried out dirt. Brilliant to fill in the gaps, and very convenient, considering we're underground."

"Doctor?" Arthur called from behind them. Rose turned to look, the Doctor scrabbled a bit more in the earth, creating a dusty pile at his feet. "Can you hear that?"

"Hear what?" He asked, and Rose shushed him. He stopped scraping, and listened. He could hear a gentle thudding, metallic and distant.

"What is it?" Rose asked. "Is it from the war?"

"I doubt it," He answered. Hopping off his platform, he went to the door, placing his palm and his ear on the cool surface. "It's from in there." His voice was solemn as he was once again reminded of the strength of the man imprisoned in the room.

"Is that Amy?" Rose asked hopefully.

"No." He told her gruffly. "You'd need a lot more strength to be heard through that door.

He got back to work. Reaching into his pocket he took out a rusting, battered old teaspoon, and used it to dig into the dirt. As he got deeper, it became harder to dislodge, but soon he found himself with a widening hole, and a few minutes later (and about six inches deeper), the spoon made the harsh screech of metal on metal. "Bingo." He muttered. Twisting the spoon to clear the earth, he saw the dirty silver metal through the brown.

"Now what?" Rose asked, not unhelpfully. The Doctor gave her the spoon, and retrieved a second one from another pocket, tossing it to Arthur.

"Dig." He told them. They began their task as the Doctor knelt down, working to get the panel below removed. After a few minutes the panel fell away, this time caught neatly by the Doctor and shoved aside, and he looked up to see much more silver than before. He stood up to view their work.

"Maybe this will be quicker." He said, and gestured to Arthur to move aside, which he did.

The Doctor squared his shoulders and turned slightly to the left. Then he raised his elbow, and rammed it into the dirt. It resisted, for a second, before cracking, a split continuing down the wall, and along behind the metal beyond their view, where, had they been able to see it, they might have remarked upon how eerily similar it looked to a crooked smile. Instead, they watched as a large chunk fell to the floor, and grimaced as the Doctors elbow slipped, bashing into the unforgiving metal.

* * *

"_Did you hear that?" Joseph asked Amy, his voice a gruff whisper._

_She turned round. "Yeah..."_

_

* * *

_"OW!" The Doctor cried out. "That hurt! That really hurt!" Rose and Arthur did little but look at him incredulously. He brushed himself off, ignoring his elbow, attempting to regain his dignity. Grabbing Arthur's spoon, he rammed it into the dirt, which was now falling in chunks. Rose joined in. Every so often a spoon would hit the metal behind, making a muted _ding_.

* * *

_Amy stood up, the pain in her leg now nothing but a slight twinge. She cocked her head, listening to the small metallic sounds now ringing, like a bell. After the eleventh time, she walked up to the wall, and rapped it hard with her knuckles._

_

* * *

_"STOP!" The Doctor yelled out, making Rose jump.

"Why?" She asked, only to be shushed by the Doctor's grubby hand to be placed over her mouth. Then she heard it: a faint tapping through the metal. She looked expectantly to the Doctor, whose smile was wide from ear to ear.

"Now, that's Amy."

* * *

* * *

I had me a bit of writing session last night, got several short chapters done, and I'm feeling pretty confident that I can finish all this by Christmas!

Love you all xx


	38. Chapter 38

Amy smiled widely. She could hear a rhythmical _tap-tappity-tap-tap_ through the thick metal. The Doctor was out there, working his way through to her.

She tapped back.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap_

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

_Tap-tappity-tappity-tappity-tap_

She turned round to smile at Joseph. "They're getting us out." She told him.

"Great." Joseph replied. Despite his words, his joy was nowhere near as much as Amy's.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her hand slipping from the wall.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tappity-tap_

"Oh, Amy," He said, sadness filling his face; the sadness of a man with nothing to lose. He knelt to the floor, picking up the forgotten hand gun. "I can't do this."

* * *

To make up for being cruel by not posting for ages, I'm going to try this 'one chapter a day' malarchy. You'll either love me again or continue to hate me. Whatever you want :)


	39. Chapter 39

The Doctor tapped back.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

He waited for a second.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

He laughed happily, hope rising in his chest.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

_Tap-tappity-tappity-tappity-tap_

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tappity-tap_

What he would've given to see her beautiful face, to hear her laugh, her voice, right that second. But this tapping would have to do.

She wasn't tapping back.

_Why isn't she tapping back?_

He tapped again.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

After waiting a few more seconds he tapped some more.

_Tap-tap-tap-tap_

No reply. He looked to Rose, whose eyes were wide with once excitement but now with worry.

_TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP_

The seconds passed agonisingly. His head was counting them along with his heartbeats. Five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen; his mind travelling a mile a minute, guessing all the things that could have happened. Could the man have silenced her knocks? Could he have killed her? Could she have been dead all along?

The dead stillness that had possessed him before crept in again now. He couldn't lose Amy. He just couldn't. Even with Rose standing straight in front of him, he knew exactly where his heart lay.

_**TAP**_

He pulled out his screwdriver, aiming them directly at the rods that stood in the way of Amy, and got back to work.


	40. Chapter 40

"What are you doing?" Amy asked carefully, watching as Joseph caressed the gun, looking at it with hunger. A condemned mans last meal.

"I can't do this." He repeated.

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

"Can't do what?" She asked, trying to be casual, trying to ignore the gun in his hand, to defuse the situation. But Amy had never been very good at keeping her fear out of her voice: it shook.

"This life." He told her. "How is a man meant to live like this?"

_Tap-tappity-tap-tap-tap_

"You can go somewhere else," Amy suggested. "The Doctor will make sure you're alright. He can do that."

To her surprise Joseph laughed. A cold, sad laugh. "No, no he can't. No-one can."

_Tap-tap-tap-tap_

"When I ran from the war, I had nothing left to live for. My family had dies, I had nothing. Now I have even less."

"You can have a new life," Amy told him. "There's so much more out there! I've seen it!"

_**TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP**_

"My fiancé died, and I kept on going." Amy told him, tears spilling from her eyes. "My best friend. I know what it's like to lose someone."

He shook his head with a sad smile.

"I survived! You can too!" She gestured wildly to make her point, but to no avail.

"No." He said simply. He shook his head again, and pointed the gun.

Amy tapped once, hard, on the wall.


	41. Chapter 41

The Doctor fiddled furiously with the controls of the screwdriver.

"It's different! Why is it _different_?" He yelled to no-one in particular.

Rose stayed silent, as did Arthur.

The Doctor kept testing the screwdriver until he hit the right one, which, in reality, only took about ten seconds, but felt much longer. Pressing the contraption down hard on the metal poles, it took a few seconds for the metal to demagnetise itself, and then fall to the floor with a loud thud. He did the same with the pole below it, and it fell also, narrowly missing his foot. He was about to start on the third when he realised he could hear Amy.

"Please don't do this!" She was saying, she was crying. The Doctors hearts thudded painfully at her distress, and imagined a million different things that could be happening.

"Amy!" He shouted out to her through the tiny crack at the edge of the panel. He could see through it too, and saw her quickly move to where he could see her. "Over here!" He called. She saw the loose panel soon enough, and she rushed over. He could see the tears in her eyes.

"Doctor." She said, her voice cracking.

"You're going to be fine." He reassured her, though of course he had no idea if this was true or not.

"Hurry up!" She told him, and he quickly got to work on disconnecting the third rod. He could hear the man talking from inside the room, and concentrated so he could hear.

"You look like her," He was saying. "Your hair. Minnie's was just the same."

"She wouldn't want you to do this." Amy told him, clasping at straws to stop the inevitable from happening.

The Doctor removed the third rod, and tried shoving the panel. It flapped out, but no more than a few inches. He huffed in frustration and moved to the fourth. Due to the weight of the whole panel on it, it flicked off quickly, and the Doctor clambered into the room, standing between Amy and the man.

It was unnecessary. The Doctor, being so concerned with the safety of Amy, had failed to realise that the gun had in fact been held by the man to his own chin, not pointing at Amy. He hadn't prepared for this.

As always, thinking first of Amy before anything else, seeking only to protect her, he stood back, completely blocking her sight line. He had seen the man's arm flex, his finger tighten, and his tense face relax as he closed his eyes. For a split second he held it like this, before squeezing the trigger, and ending the sorrow filled tale of Joseph Rutherford.

* * *

To any of you who may have liked Joe... I'm sorry :( xxx


	42. Chapter 42

Amy woke up on the sofa of the TARDIS. She didn't open her eyes, but that didn't matter. She knew where she was. She buried her face into the leather-esque material ever so slightly, not moving so much as to call attention to herself.

It didn't work. She heard footsteps coming over, and a hand gently stroking her hair. For a second she thought it was the Doctor, but when she heard a female voice, she realised it wasn't.

"Amy?" Rose was saying. "Can you hear me?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to regain the blissful tranquillity of sleep. Sleep was easy, passing out, a breeze. Being awake, alert, alive; that's harder. But when sleep didn't return, she opened her eyes, forcing them to focus and look up to Rose.

She felt the TARDIS shudder, and realised they were mid-flight. The ship rocked again, and she was jolted, forcing her to sit up a bit.

"Yeah." She said.

"Are you alright? How are you feeling?" Rose asked, watching her carefully, judging her condition.

"I'm fine." Amy told her, sitting up fully and running her hands down her face.

"Are you really though?" She asked again. Amy caught sight of her leg, bulky beneath her skirt from the padding of the bandage. She noticed it didn't hurt any more, and as she peeled back the bandage, she found nothing but a pink mark to show that anything had ever been there. She threw the padding next to the sofa, where she knew it would somehow find itself into some sort of garbage system that the TARDIS had, that she would probably never understand.

"How long was I asleep?" She asked in return.

"Only about fifteen minutes." Rose told her, the worried look still in her eyes.

"Right." She said. Standing up, she could see the Doctor manoeuvring the ship, darting around the console, pressing buttons and pulling levers; very few of which she understood. He glanced up at her, smiling briefly.

"You're awake!" He cried. Pulling a lever down hard, he dashed over to her, and placed his hand right up to her face. "How many fingers?"

She brought her head back a few inches, unable to count at so short a distance. "Three."

He stepped forward. "Open wide, say 'ahhhh'." She did so, and he clasped both sides of her face, looking down her throat. She closed her mouth as he patted her on the shoulder. "You're fine," he told her. "Physically, at least." He muttered. Stepping back, he went back to the console, pulling the lever up again and bringing the ship back into motion. Amy and Rose braced themselves on the console like naturals.

"What happened to the others?" Amy asked.

"Arthur and Scotson? I dropped them off home." He said proudly.

"And Joseph?" She asked feebly. For a second she thought that he hadn't heard her, but quickly recognised the signs: the set of his jaw, the coldness of his eyes, his habit of looking to the screen above his head.

"He didn't make it." He told her gently.

"You didn't just leave him there, did you?" She asked indignantly.

"No," He said, moving round to her. "He's getting a proper burial. With his family."

She looked down at the floor, trying to blink back the tears that were suddenly in her eyes. "He'd have wanted that."


	43. Chapter 43

The Doctor yearned to comfort Amy; he could see how much she was hurting. He knew the power that one awful day could yield.

He wanted to hug her, to hold her in his arms, to make her feel like there was one thing she could rely on. But he couldn't make that promise to her. Even then, a constant reminder lurked in the corner of his eye: poor, broken Rose, the girl he had hurt time and time again, and now had to once more.

He parked the TARDIS, having reached his destination, approximately ten feet above where they had been for several hours of their lives. Again he heard the heavy quick paced tapping high up in the walls, but ignored it.

"Why are we back here?" Amy asked him, remembering the situation quickly.

"I have to pick something up." He told them. He ran to the door, but quickly doubled back. "Don't follow me. Stay in here." He told them both.

Amy had no intention of going outside. She didn't really have any intentions right now. Rose nodded to the Doctor, knowing that she should keep an eye on Amy.

Satisfied, the Doctor went back to the door, crouched low, and moved out.

He had parked the TARDIS exactly where they had landed the last time, a fact which was confirmed when he saw the same body as before, massacred beyond recognition by bullets; the same bullets that were flying over his head.

"I'm sorry." He told the anonymous man. He spared a few seconds of mourning for him, before moving on, looking around the body to find what he was looking for.

He didn't find the beige pack. He knew where it had to be instead.

Which meant what came next was already decided. He had to take Rose back to where she belonged.

* * *

"So what are you going to do now?" Rose was asking. Amy's silence was unnerving her.

"I don't know." She said. "Carry on, I guess."

"You should get him to take you somewhere nice, like a holiday."

Amy didn't reply.

"Or you could go back? See your family?" Rose suggested.

"There's nothing waiting for me at home but an empty house." Amy told her. It was true. Anything that she could have ever gone home for had vanished. Had never existed.

The muddy Doctor came through the doors of the TARDIS, wielding the muddier pack. Shutting the doors behind him, he ran up to the console, and plonked the pack on the scanner. He pressed a few buttons and the TARDIS wheezed into life, though more painfully this time. The blown-glass column screeched as it hummed up and down, and the lighting within the room dimmed and flickered.

"What's happening?" Rose yelled out over the noise.

"I'm taking you home."


	44. Chapter 44

The TARDIS wheezed and clunked into existence, pushing its way through the boundaries of the universe, landing in Pete's world; specifically, a museum, second floor, the World War Two exhibit. They landed with a heavy thud, and the three passengers landed on the floor of the ship. The lights had dimmed, and the whole ship seemed eerie – like walking through your school at dusk.

"She's just recuperating." The Doctor told them as they stood up. "This isn't an easy journey for her. Usually it's impossible, unless we have something to track."

"Me?" Rose asked.

"You touched the pack. The TARDIS can track the pack through you."

"Right." She said.

"What's outside?" Amy asked, determined to make an effort, to keep up appearances.

"Don't know yet, that's exciting!" He told her. "All I know is that it's a parallel universe. This is where Rose lives now..."

He stopped talking as he heard a tapping at the door. He hesitated ever so slightly, while Rose and Amy gave a collective '_I dunno'_ gesture, before he went to the door.

Opening it slightly, he stepped out of the door, followed by Rose, and finally Amy.

The room was large, white, and only slightly filled with cabinets containing history. What was more distracting was the man outside the door, who pulled Rose aside, took her in a hug and held her close. However, he quickly noticed that she wasn't reciprocating.

"Rose? What's wrong?" He asked her.

She looked to the Doctor, unsure of what to say. He stepped in to explain.

"When she transported over to the other universe, she lost her memory."

"How?" The man, John, demanded.

"The pack has basic supplies in it, one of them being a memory altering solution. She got affected by it." He explained. "But, her instincts are all there, she's still brilliant, still amazing. Still Rose."

"What are your instincts telling you about me?" John asked Rose, holding her at arm's length.

"Um..." She said, trying to concentrate. "I recognise you, from the flat."

"The flat?" He said confused. He looked up to the Doctor, and caught sight of Amy, recognising her from all those years ago – for him. "Of course... I wondered when that was going to happen, I just thought time changed." He looked back at Rose. "What else. What do you feel?"

Rose looked at him, long and hard. She looked into his warm brown eyes. "I can't remember you," She told him, and disappointment showed in his face. "But I know you, I do. I trust you..." Her voice turned to a whisper. "I love you."

John nodded happily, tears in his eyes, and embraced her again.

The Doctor was walking around the room, examining every nook and cranny, and ignoring the moment that was happening just yards away from him. "Where's the pack?"

John and Rose separated, but didn't relinquish each other's hands. "Over in the crate." He told him, gesturing over to the left. The Doctor pointed his finger towards it before he walked over, and plucked it out. He burrowed inside it, before he found the vial with the purple gas.

He walked back over to Rose and John. "Ready to get your memories back?" He asked her. She nodded excitedly. He held the sonic screwdriver to the vial, and buzzed it until the gas turned into liquid and pooled at the bottom. He held it out to her to drink. She looked to John, smiled to reassure him, and quickly downed it. Within a few seconds she had slumped into his arms, and he gently lowered her to the floor. He looked back up to the Doctor, worry in his face. "Is she going to be alright?"

"She'll be fine, a slight headache, but she'll be okay." He looked over to Amy, who was sitting on a marble bench, looking in the general direction of a uniform display, her back to the doorway leading to the Roman exhibit. He looked away. "How have you been?"

"We've been good." John told him. "It wasn't always easy, but we're happy." He looked down at the sleeping Rose in his arms. "We will be happy."

"Good!" The Doctor said.

"And you?" John returned. "Are you happy?"

"I have my moments." He told him, somewhat sadly.

"You have your friend, doesn't she make you happy?" He nodded over to the Scottish girl, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Amy." He told him. "Yeah, she does. Mostly. She's usually happier."

"Oh?"

"She's had a really bad day." He said. "She just needs some time."

"Why don't you take her home, to her family?" John suggested.

"There's nothing there for her anymore." The Doctor explained. "I'm all she has."

He knew it should make him happy, that Amy had no other option than to stay with him. He had her all to himself. But it didn't feel right; he loved her, of course he did, but that would be nothing if she wasn't happy. And for once, he didn't know how to fix it.

He looked back to John to find him analysing his face. He realised instantly that John knew exactly how he felt about Amy, understood exactly the problem that he was facing. He wasn't the time lord, but he thought like him.

"Martha and Mickey got married." The Doctor said, changing the subject.

"Really?" John asked. "Good for them."

"And Donna did too." He went on. "They're all surviving."

"Do you ever see them anymore?"

"No." He said shortly. "But River, she keeps popping up."

"Have you figured her out yet?" John asked.

"I hope not." The Doctor replied gruffly, thinking back to when he had last spoken to her, the cryptic description of her crime.

John looked confused, but eventually went back to stroking Rose's hair as she slept. "Do you want to stay for a bit?" He asked. "We're having dinner with the family, Jacquie and Pete." The Doctor just looked at him, and John nodded knowingly. "Of course you don't."

"Best not." The Doctor agreed.

John looked at the TARDIS. "It's different."

"Yeah, needed a change. I quite like it!"

"It's very... blue." John said.

"Do you want to look inside?" The Doctor asked him. "Just a look."

John studied the box for a few minutes. "No." He surmised.

"Alright." The Doctor said quickly, brushing over any disappointed feelings he had. "Is there a gift shop round here?"

"It's not that I wouldn't love to see it," John told him, ignoring the subject change. "But, it took me so long to stop being you, to start being the man that Rose needed me to be. I've left your life behind. So, no; I don't want to see inside."

"Alright." The Doctor said, understanding completely. He knew it couldn't have been easy for him to transform from the Time Travelling Hero to John Smith. Even if he could have Rose this way, it was still a huge adjustment. Too many times to count the Doctor had had to consider a life of normalcy, times when the TARDIS had seemed lost for good, or broken; one time he had considered a life with Rose, joked about a mortgage. It wasn't a life for him, but for John it had to be.

Behind them, the TARDIS thrummed, and the Doctor saw the white walls turn blue from the light. Turning round he saw through the doors that the lights were on inside; the TARDIS was ready to go. The Doctor stood up.

"You're leaving now?" John asked. "You won't even wait for Rose to wake up?"

"I'd love to, but when you tear a gap between universes you have an extraordinarily short amount of time to get through before it seals itself." The Doctor explained somewhat patronisingly, though unintentionally. He walked to the Door, and gestured for Amy to follow as she had turned when she had heard the TARDIS. "Tell Rose to keep hold of that necklace, just in case."

"Right." John stood up, brushed himself down and extended a hand to the Doctor. "It was good to see you again."

The Doctor smiled. "You too, Mr Smith." He said with a chuckle as he shook John's hand with both of his, and then dropping it.

Amy approached slowly, lethargically. She nodded to John. "Nice to meet you." She said.

"You too." He said warmly, despite her attitude.

"Tell Rose I said bye." She said as she walked into the TARDIS. The Doctor patted John on the shoulder once, and turned to follow Rose.

"Doctor?" John called.

"Yeah?"

"Take Amy somewhere nice; Barcelona, maybe, or Space Florida." He suggested.

"She'd like that." The Doctor conceded, smiling. With one last look to Rose, he walked into the TARDIS and closed the door behind him.

Amy was sitting on the sofa, her arms and legs crossed, waiting for him. He sighed slightly, saddened by her sadness, before putting his usual happy facade back on. He ran up the steps to the console. He was just about the start the engines when he saw something on the floor, it must have been moved about during the bumpy ride: the photo album from Jacquie's flat. He had forgotten that she had taken it. Placing it on the scanner, he programmed it to do that dramatic and slightly magical looking thing; it would be left on the floor after the TARDIS had vanished. Once this was completed he set the engines off, and braced himself for the rocky journey back. He turned round to see his friend still sitting.

"Right, Amy. Go get changed." He instructed her confidently.

"Why?" She asked dully.

"Because, Pond, we're going to Space Florida."

* * *

I had intended in writing this quickly so I had more time to do the last chapter and get it finished before Christmas, but [Insert excuse here]. The last chapter will be up on Christmas day! Right after the Christmas episode so I can gush about how amazing it was.


	45. Chapter 45

The Doctor piloted through the worst of the turbulence while Amy got changed, and tried to force his mind to stick to the task at hand. But he couldn't help but smile as he remembered the glimmer of excitement he saw in Amy's eyes as he told her where they were going.

"Space Florida?" She had said.

"Yup!" He said. "Sun, sand, sea and waves. A stress free holiday for the both of us – I think we've earned it."

She had gone and changed, and the Doctor let himself believe that this holiday really would do her some good. Hadn't she been whinging for ages for him to take her on holiday?

She re-entered the console room, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, red vest, a short skirt – as usual – and inexplicable cowboy boots. Her eyes were hidden by a pair of yellow framed sunglasses. The Doctor smiled at her. "That's the spirit!"

"They were already out," She told him, gesturing towards her outfit. "I think the TARDIS had plans."

"Well she likes a vacation every once in a while." He said. "Brace yourself!"

Amy had just about enough time to grab onto the railing before the TARDIS jolted, the room momentarily going dark and silent. After a second it all lit back up, and the Doctor patted the machine affectionately. "Back in the right universe now." He explained. Then they stayed silent for about half a minute, the Doctor pretending to be busy piloting the TARDIS, and Amy staring dreamily off. At least she looked a bit happier – not a lot, but a bit. However, the Doctor got tired of the silence, and determined to bring Amy out of the state she was in.

"Now the beach, the beach is the best." He told her.

"Hmm?" She asked, having not properly heard what he had said, but quickly catching up. "Why?"

"Automatic sand!" He told her with glee.

"Automatic sand?" She repeated. "What does that mean?"

"It's automated, totally. Cleans up the lolly sticks all by itself."

"So humankind finally get on top of the rubbish dump problem?" She asked. She turned round and faced the Doctor and walked up to the console. She pulled down a lever that she knew didn't really do anything, but wanted to feel like she was doing _something._ The Doctor smiled, appreciating the effort she was making. Space Florida was a fantastic idea.

"After a while, yes." He said vaguely. "Oh, you're going to love it, Amy." He told her. "I double checked, Space Florida has a spotless history – it's going to be pure relaxation for as long as we're there."

"No evil aliens?" She asked.

"Nope." He said happily. "But you might want to watch out for the Boynton mojito. That only ever leads to trouble." He grimaced at a memory from a few centuries back. "I almost found myself attached to a very unsavoury woman after drinking a few of those."

"You were engaged?" She asked.

"No," he told her. "A more literaltype of attachment."

She raised her eyebrows and chuckled, surprising both her and the Doctor.

"_AMY!"_

Amy turned round and lowered her sunglasses. For a second she thought she had heard something, and felt a slight chill in the room. It quickly passed, and she turned back round to see the Doctor exactly where he had been.

"Did you hear something?" She asked him.

"Hear what?" He replied, pushing down buttons and bracing himself for impact. Amy did the same, holding onto the console.

"I thought I heard..." She looked round and trailed off. "It was nothing."

He paused and looked up at her, hand on a lever. "Are you alright, Amy?"

"I'm fine." She told him with an almost convincing smile. "We almost there?"

He threw down the lever, and landed the ship.

"Right, Amy," He told her, and ran to the door. He opened it wide for her, and she followed, peering out of the gap. "Welcome to Space Florida!"

* * *

THE END! Or is it...? Not quite. I'm going to do a sequel, I don't think it's quite done yet, do you? :D

So, has anyone else seen the Christmas episode yet? It was amazing. SO good! I watched with my Dad, we were laughing along together. Favorite quote: "What type of tye is that?" "A cool one." - "Want to know why this tye is cool? Because I wear it and don't care what people think; that's why it's cool." (I may be paraphrasing). NO! "I'm a mature, reliable adult." *holds out psychic paper* "It's just wiggly lines?" "Oh, finally a lie too big."

So, thank you to everyone who has been reading along with me, whether it's been for all of the last 6 months, started recently, or even the people who will find this in the future... wibbly wobbly timey wimey. I love you all, thank you so much for making me feel happy, and all of the beautiful reviews. I 3 you all.

One more thing... MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is for you: www [dot] youtube [dot] com / watch?v=htHx-LRe9yQ&feature=recentlikmore


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